History
Early 802.11 products suffered from interoperability problems because the IEEE has no provision for testing equipment for compliance with its standards.
In 1999, pioneers of a new, higher speed (compared to the original 802.11) spec, endorsed the IEEE 802.11b specification to form the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA) and branded the new technology Wi-Fi.
The group of companies included 3Com, Aironet (now Cisco), Harris Semiconductor (now Intersil), Lucent (now LSI Corporation), Symbol Technologies (now Motorola), and Nokia. As key sponsors, now the Alliance lists other companies, such as Apple inc. and Microsoft. The charter for this independent organization was to perform testing, certify interoperability of products, and to promote the technology.
WECA renamed itself the Wi-Fi Alliance in 2002. It is based in Austin, Texas.
Today, most producers of 802.11 equipment are members, and as of 2010, the Wi-Fi Alliance has over 375 member companies worldwide.
Read more about this topic: Wi-Fi Alliance
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I assure you that in our next class we will concern ourselves solely with the history of Egypt, and not with the more lurid and non-curricular subject of living mummies.”
—Griffin Jay, and Reginald LeBorg. Prof. Norman (Frank Reicher)
“A man acquainted with history may, in some respect, be said to have lived from the beginning of the world, and to have been making continual additions to his stock of knowledge in every century.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)