New Consortium Will Promote Wireless LAN Standard

A new international consortium has been formed to promote the HiperLAN2 high-speed wireless connectivity standard.

The HiperLAN2 Global Forum includes representatives from Bosch,
Dell, Ericsson,
Nokia, Texas Instruments
and Telia.

The forum will promote the HiperLAN2 standard as
the global broadband wireless technology in the 5 GHz band. It is
aimed at bringing seamless connectivity between communication
devices and networks including third generation (3G) cellular systems.

“HiperLAN2 marks a significant milestone in the interoperability
of high-speed wireless LANs and therefore we would like to encourage
other companies in the industry to join the consortium,” said Martin
Johnsson, chairman of the HiperLAN2 Global Forum.

“With the completion of the standard we will see a major shift in
the development of mobile technologies. Together with the massive
growth in mobile communications and the emergence of multimedia
applications, the completion of the HiperLAN2 standard will enable
the success of wireless LANs on a global basis.”

It is expected that the HiperLAN2 standard will be completed by
the end of the year. Products supporting it will become commercially
available in 2001, although most of them will not come to market
until early 2002.

Among the key features of features of HiperLAN2 are a high security
level, extensive mobility support and equipment interoperability.

Formation of the consortium was welcomed by Jamshid Khun Jush,
chairman of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute
Project BRAN (Broadband Radio Access Networks), which is developing
the standard.

“We believe that the activities of the HiperLAN2 Global Forum will
increase the chances of HiperLAN2 becoming a global broadband
wireless technology in 5GHz band and it will dramatically improve
the opportunities for the industry to advance into new generations
of broadband wireless technology,” said Jamshid Khun Jush.