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WLANA APPLAUDS APPROVAL OF WIRELESS LAN STANDARD: New Wireless Standard To Boost Customer Confidence, Industry Competition and Spur New Applications SAN JOSE, Calif., (July 21, 1997) — The Wireless LAN Association (WLANA) today applauded the completion and approval of a new standard for wireless local area networking by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers' (IEEE) 802.11 committee. The IEEE Standards Activity Board late last month approved the 802.11 standard for the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) 2.4 GHz frequency band. "An IEEE-approved standard is a tremendous milestone for the wireless LAN industry," said Jeff Abramowitz, President of The Wireless LAN Association. "The existence of a standard enhances customer confidence in wireless LAN products and accelerates the development of interoperable wireless LAN solutions." Several WLANA members have recently announced plans to collaborate on demonstrating product interoperability. "The approval of the new standard expands our choice in vendors and provides assurance that the technology will produce reliable products," said Richard Paine, Advanced Computing Technologist for Boeing. "In addition, we use wireless LANs in a variety of applications across multiple locations. The standard codifies wireless network management parameters that will help us manage our entire network." Wireless LAN solutions have been proven in data collection, point of sale and inventory applications and are gaining popularity in applications that include clinical data capture in hospitals, trading on stock exchange floors, and real-time information access on corporate intranets. "More applications are on the horizon," Abramowitz said. "The approval of the standard will result in a proliferation of products that customers will find creative ways to use in new applications." The wireless LAN market, estimated at more than $200 million in 1996, is growing at more than 50 percent per year. Industry analysts expect the market to reach the $1 billion mark by the year 2000. WLANA, whose members represent more than 95 percent of current wireless LAN industry revenues, is dedicated to promoting increased awareness and knowledge of wireless LANs among potential customers, independent software vendors and systems integrators. The alliance provides vendor-independent information about the growing number of wireless LAN applications and maintains an educational web site at http://www.wlana.org. Contact: All company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
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