News

DTI to approve the forgotten Wireless - 11a - at last!

People have forgotten about WiFi 5, or 802.11a. All the attention has been on the premature launch of 802.11g, or 54g or Extreme, or Wireless Extreme, as it is being called, pending approval of 11g. Some have even said that 11a is lost and forgotten. But as from tomorrow, in the UK at least, that all changes.

According to news site ZDNet, the imminent deregulation of the 5GHz spectrum in Britain "will give a green light to commercial Wi-Fi hot spots based on the fast 802.11a standard, with the UK government poised to amend the regulations governing wireless spectrum." Imminent? how imminent?

In fact, the announcement is due for tomorrow - Tuesday 21st when the Department of Trade and Industry will remove the need to buy a £50 (per month!) site licence before installing 802.11a equipment.

The Department believes that new legislation is needed; and is due to announce that this legislation will be introduced in the House of Commons next week, according to reporter Graeme Wearden.

Wearden says this move is "part of the government's drive to make appropriate spectrum available to the telecoms industry, and follows a similar deregulation of 2.4GHz last year."

The delay will take some explaining, all the same; the RA (Radiocommunications Agency) recommended this relaxation over a year ago.