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:
“English history is all about men liking their fathers, and American history is all about men hating their fathers and trying to burn down everything they ever did.”
—Malcolm Bradbury (b. 1932)
“It may be well to remember that the highest level of moral aspiration recorded in history was reached by a few ancient Jews—Micah, Isaiah, and the rest—who took no count whatever of what might not happen to them after death. It is not obvious to me why the same point should not by and by be reached by the Gentiles.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-scale authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)