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Huge sales of "pre" 802.11g wireless LAN products, claims Linksys

Linksys launches its 54 megabit WLAN technology in Europe, with a claim of US sales running at a rate of over a million a year, and expected to increase.

The new "pre-standard" wireless LAN technology has hit the ground running - in just over one month, Linksys claims to have shipped 100,000 units based on its Wireless G version of 802.11g - and is now aiming to hit the UK market as from next week.

A triumphant marketing chief, Mike Wagner -

who is touring Europe to launch the Wireless G range - said that 11g equipment is already outselling 11b equipment, by as much as two to one over e-commerce sites like Amazon.

His first UK product will be a four-port combined Access Point and router which Amazon will sell in the UK for £119.99 from the end of the month. Other Wireless G products will include the client PC Card adapter and for non-portable PCs, the PCI card at £60 each.

In the near future, what Wagner calls a "games console adapter" an ethernet-to-wireless adapter - will be aimed at Xbox and Playstation markets - but will also be pretty useful for people who want to link two wired Ethernet networks together. Have a look at the WET11 "wireless bridge" and imagine it with 11g inside it, and called WET54G instead.

"The market for the other high-speed wireless network technology, 802.11a, is simply tiny, in the home," Wagner said. "It won't go through walls. It may be very useful for office managers in open-plan cubicle farms, but for home use, it simply hasn't got the range required."

Linksys has plans, however, to move into the corporate WLAN market later this half, by May at least, with dual 11a/11g cards and a high performance router with two mini-PCI slots, making it capable of covering all three technologies - 11a, 11b and 11g. Wagner wasn't able to discuss these products.