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WECA vanishes! - turns into WiFi Alliance, just like that ...

It's not quite the same as the old WECA (Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance) but it has the same sort of aims, and it has a new URL. Why has it changed ... ?

Dennis Eaton of Intersil remains chairman. He gives the reason: a change of focus.

"The Wi-Fi Alliance has changed significantly since it was founded three years ago. We started with six founding companies on August 3,1999. In the following months we added eleven charter members. Today, there are eleven companies on the Wi-Fi Alliance board and over 170 Wi-Fi Alliance members from around the world."

Which is, of course, an achievement. But why a reason to change? Why the new Web site?

"We are most proud of the overwhelming desire of the industry to assure product interoperability for their customers through Wi-Fi certification. This has allowed the industry take off from a handful of products in early 2000 to where we are now with 450 Wi-Fi certified products in ten categories. During this period of time, the Wi-Fi Alliance has also changed its original focus from primarily being on the business enterprise to meeting the needs of a more diverse industry," said Eaton.

What he seems to mean (we're still waiting for contact!) is that when they founded WECA, everybody in wireless knew what WECA was. But today, the "WiFI" logo is not just an industry acronym - it's a brand. And people who want to find the brand, don't know to look for WECA on the Web, so it makes perfect sense.

The full blurb on the Web site goes into detail. "There's lots of other information like a glossary, an overview of how to set up an select a wireless LAN, an overview of networking and more."

More details, as we get them.