Wireless Vendors Rush In With 802.11g-Based Wares

SMC Networks, for one, plans to release a new line of draft 802.11g products in March. Those will include a wireless cable/DSL broadband router, a wireless cardbus adapter and a wireless PCI card. SMC follows other vendors to market, including Irvine, Calif.-based Linksys and Austin, Texas-based Buffalo Technology.

"This industry is moving so fast that the demand for the higher-speed wireless is moving faster than the standards," said Tony Stramandinoli, director of marketing at Irvine-based SMC.

The 802.11g wireless standard is a draft of a protocol developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) that is faster, carries more data and has a longer range than existing 802.11 standards. Solution providers are enthusiastic about the standard because it promises network speeds of up to 54 Mbps and is backward-compatible with the popular 802.11b Wi-Fi standard.

IEEE's Working Group approved the 802.11g draft in mid-February. Final approval of the standard is expected in mid-June, and publication is slated for late July, according to the IEEE.

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While the organization is pleased to see vendors take the initiative by releasing products based on 802.11g, those rollouts are "quite speculative," said Stuart Kerry, chair of the IEEE's Working Group.

But solution providers, industry watchers and wireless vendors say the early unveiling of products is simply a matter of adhering to the economic principle of supply and demand.

"It's the software they're finalizing," said Stramandinoli. "Everything we're shipping would be upgradable to the standard, and that can be done easily with just a driver update or a firmware update for the router."

Horizon Computer, a Framingham, Mass.-based solution provider specializing in wireless deployments for small and midsize businesses, is already enjoying success with the sale of 802.11g products from Linksys, said Scott Fine, owner of the company.

Fine said he estimates that Horizon has sold up to 60 of those products in the past month, and so far the news is good: Horizon hasn't had to respond to a tech support call yet.

Those products fill a need for faster wireless products at a more reasonable price, he said. "[802.11a products] are three times as expensive. I think that's why [802.11a] has failed to get a foothold."

802.11g-based offerings from Linksys include a wireless router priced at $149, an access point at $139, a PC Card at $79 and a PCI card at $79.

While the 802.11g draft has yet to address the issue of operating on the crowded 2.4MHz frequency, Fine said he expects sales to pick up once the standard is finalized.

"The product is a slow starter, but it's catching on," he said. "So far, I've seen no problems. We haven't had a single return, so it looks like [Linksys] did a good job shaking out the bugs."

Gemma Paulo, senior analyst at research firm In-Stat/MDR, said that while vendors have been doing plenty of work behind the scenes, first-generation products usually have some kinks. Wireless vendors will have to keep up with the technology that's already in the marketplace if they expect to compete, she said.

"[SMC] really does have to get with it, because they're competing with Linksys and all of these other vendors that already shipped prestandard [802.11]g products," Paulo said. "So they really couldn't do anything else [but compete in the market with their own 802.11g offerings]."

Meanwhile, the WLAN product market is projected to grow to 23.6 million units sold in 2005, up from 3.3 million units in 2000, according to In-Stat/MDR.