Linksys Ships 802.11g In Low Volume

A spokeswoman for the SMB wireless networking vendor said in an interview Tuesday that a shipment of about 5,000 units was sent out last week, with another 10,000-unit shipment moving this week.

A third shipment is expected to be released on Thursday, she said.

Initial units went to volume resellers, such as Amazon and Buy.com, the spokeswoman said. Both retailers, however, have yet to offer the products on their Web sites.

Some products have been sent to distributor Ingram Micro, she added.

Linksys said it shipping four 802.11g products: a wireless router at a street price of $149, an access point at a street price of $139, and a PC Card and PCI card, each with a street price of $79.

Linksys had been working with chip maker Broadcom to be the first vendor to ship a draft-standard 802.11g device into the market, and had been shooting for an early December ship date, according to company CEO Victor Tsao. This fall, Tsao told CRN he expected the company to be able to ship 100,000 units in December.

Products based on the 802.11g standard have been highly anticipated in the industry not only because they provide 54-Mbps network speeds, but also because they are backward-compatible with existing 802.11b, or Wi-Fi, products in wide use now.

Current products are based on an early version of the IEEE 802.11g standard in development. The final version of the standard is expected to be ratified by May.

Vendors shipping draft-standard products said they expect to be able to offer a firmware upgrade that will ensure their existing devices will comply with the finalized standard.

A number of SMB vendors are also working to deliver draft-standard 802.11g products. Buffalo Technologies said it has shipped products, while D-Link and NetGear are hoping to deliver their own offerings in January.