Wireless Lan Association (WLANA) APPLAUDS NEWLY FORMED WIRELESS ETHERNET COMPATIBILITY ALLIANCE (WECA)

WLANA supports interoperability and certification mission of WECA

St. Simons Island, GA - October 15, 1999 — The Wireless LAN Association today provided a vote of confidence for the newly formed Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA) and their “Wi-Fi” seal of approval for IEEE 802.11 High-Rate technology. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE) ratified the 11 Mbps IEEE 802.11b High Rate standard on September 30, 1999.

"WLANA believes that WECA's IEEE 802.11 High Rate, Wi-Fi, product testing and certification plans are of tremendous value to the wireless LAN industry,’ said Greg DiCillo, managing director of The Wireless LAN Association. "The creation of the Wi-Fi brand for tested and certified products can only help customers who are interested in identifying IEEE 802.11 High Rate wireless LAN products that are interoperable."

"WECA's mission is to certify interoperability of IEEE 802.11 High Rate wireless networking products and to promote the Wi-Fi seal of approval," said Phil Belanger, chairman of WECA. "This will help ensure the deployment of wireless LAN products that interoperate seamlessly, across all market segments including the enterprise, small office, home and public access. WLANA provides valuable general WLAN education across these market segments and we appreciate their vote of support," added Belanger.

WLANA APPLAUDS NEWLY FORMED WECA
"The momentum of WECA underscores the intense recent interest in wireless LANs, ” said Jeff Abramowitz, president of WLANA. “Helping to highlight significant industry events such as the formation of WECA is part of the value that WLANA brings to the industry as a broad-based educational organization.”

About WLANA
The Wireless LAN Association is a non-profit educational trade association, comprised of leading local area wireless technology vendors. WLANA provides a clearinghouse of information about wireless local area networking applications, issues and trends and serves as a resource to customers as well as industry press and analysts.

The Alliance maintains an educational web site at www.wlana.com with an 8-page executive summary of a recently completed ROI wireless LAN industry study, a recently updated “Introduction to Wireless LANs” tutorial, and an assortment of white papers, application stories and links to related topics and member web sites.

About WECA
WECA's mission is to certify interoperability of IEEE 802.11 High Rate, Wi-Fi, products and promote that standard for the enterprise, small business and the home. WECA maintains a web site at www.wirelessethernet.com.

Current WLANA members include:
3Com Corporation www.3com.com
Aironet Wireless Communications, Inc. www.aironet.com
Alvarion Inc.www.breezecom.com
Cabletron Systems, Inc. www.cabletron.com/wireless
Intermec Technologies www.intermec.com
Intersil (formerly Harris Semiconductor) www.intersil.com
Lucent Technologies www.wavelan.com
Nokia www.nokia.com
Nortel Networks Wireless LAN Group www.nortelnetworks.com
No Wires Needed www.nwn.com
Symbol Technologies, Inc. www.symbol.com

WLANA Contact: Greg DiCillo Wireless Lan Association, Director Voice: 440-602-WLANA (9526) Fax: 440-953-0039 E-mail: [email protected]

WECA Contact: Phil Belanger, Chairman Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA) Voice: (330) 664-7953 Fax: (330) 664-7922 E-mail: [email protected]

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