Linksys Misses Planned 802.11g Ship Date, Vendors Rush To Fill Void

Linksys had intended to be the first company to ship 802.11g. In a pre-Comdex interview with CRN, Linksys CEO Victor Tsao said the company had been working with chip maker Broadcom and would be ready to ship more than 100,000 units by the end of December.

Solution providers said Linksys has yet to deliver an 802.11g product, and the Linksys Web site identifies 802.11g as "coming soon." Linksys officials were not immediately available for comment.

D-Link is now the latest vendor claiming it will be the first to ship 802.11g products under the AirPuls Xtreme brand. The company said the line is expected to ship mid-January a router with 4-port switch with a MSPR of $149 and a PC Card with a MSRP of $79.99.

A NetGear spokesman, meanwhile, said the company plans to ship an 802.11g PC Card in mid-January, an access point in February, and a router in March.

Solution providers are enthusiastic about products based on the 802.11g because they promise to deliver 54Mbps at the 2.4GHz frequency, making the products compatible with popular 802.11b, or Wi-Fi, products. Solution providers, therefore, will be able to upgrade customers to faster speeds without having to throw away old equipment.

The final 802.11g standard is expected to be ratified by May, 2003. Products from D-Link, Linksys and others that will ship in the first quarter are based on an early version of the standard. These vendors expect to be able to provide software upgrades later in the year that will comply with any changes in the final version of the standard.

But more conservative vendors, such as Cisco Systems and Proxim, plan to wait until the standard is officially ratified before they release product. Additionally, many mid-market solution provider said they plan to wait for an "approved" version before selling 802.11g to their customers.