Dell happy with pre-standard 802.11n Wi-Fi equipment
Dell has defended its decision to join the growing number of manufacturers releasing high-speed Wi-Fi equipment based on the draft 802.11n specification.
Given the amount of gadgetry already on the market you’d be forgiven for thinking the standard was near completion, but in fact it isn’t due to be ratified until March 2009.
Liam Quinn, Dell’s chief technology officer for communications, security, peripherals and systems, told ZDNet that it doesn’t really matter that the standard hasn’t been finalised yet.
“At this point in time, we feel very comfortable that the standard is stable and pretty solid. With the mechanics now of how it is going to be rubber-stamped to be a standard, we don’t believe there [are] going to be any significant changes in the technical terms,” he said.
Even if there are changes, existing equipment can easily be upgraded via a software update over the Internet.
802.11n is supposed to provide five times as much throughput, and twice the range, of the existing 802.11g Wi-Fi standard.
