The Wi-Fi Alliance has begun its certification program for 802.11ac products, and said that more products with the certification will be available in the second half of the year.
The 802.11ac standard operates at 5 GHz vs. 2.4 GHz, and is expected to deliver speeds two to three times that of the previous standard, for better experience with HD video, multimedia and rapid file transfers.
ABI Research has predicted that shipments of dual-band Wi-Fi chipsets – including both Wi-Fi n and Wi-Fi ac – will exceed 1.5 billion by the end of 2014.
“Progression within the Wi-Fi industry has been driven primarily by applications in the mobile and connected home space,” said ABI research analyst Phil Solis. “The latest generation of the technology, Wi-Fi Certified ac, preserves interoperability, which has been the foundation for the technology’s success, and will enable product manufacturers to continue to explore new avenues for wireless connectivity.”
A list of products with the ac certification – all granted within the past two weeks – can be found here.
Gogo, which provides satellite-based Wi-Fi service for most domestic aircraft with wireless connectivity, went public on Friday, with its stock at $17 per share for 11 million shares, but shares have slid steeply amid volatile market conditions.
Shares dropped as low as 9% from their initial value, and were trading down 5.5% by late afternoon on its opening day and closed at $16 each. On Monday morning, they were trading down even further, at $14.35 per share. Gogo’s CEO has said that the company went public in order to fund international expansion; the company’s U.S. clients include United, Delta and Virgin America. Gogo has hotspots on more than 1,800 domestic aircraft.
Aruba Networks said it upgraded the wireless LAN at the University of Cincinnati with 4,000 of its access points to support more than 38,000 simultaneously connected devices on a given day.
“We are seeing the consumerization of higher education with the growing bring-your-own-device trend, where students are bringing their personal devices onto campus for their individual, private use as well as for their academic coursework,” said Diana Noelcke, interim assistant VP of network and telecom services for the university. “Prospective students and guests are making decisions about our University based on the excellence of our wireless coverage and its ease of use, including the quality of guest access that we deliver, and we have to meet and exceed their expectations.”
And Harris Communications launched a new line of cell phone repeaters that are designed to comply with new FCC regulations on interference with the macro network. The company said the repeaters “are designed to efficiently eliminate interference as required by the new regulations without any effect on wireless customers of the major carriers such as AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile, all of whom have agreed to meet the new upcoming requirements.”
Harris says it will handle all aspects of the new repeaters, from site survey to design and installation.
