Enhanced Wi-Fi gear heading downmarket

Prices are coming down on wireless LAN gear that uses advanced multi-antenna technology, bringing its higher speed and greater range within reach of more power-hungry consumers -- as long as they're comfortable with pre-standard products.

Most of the biggest Wi-Fi vendors now offer consumer access points and clients with systems that take advantage of multiple antennas on clients and routers, boosting data speed above the standard 54M bps (bits per second) maximum for standard Wi-Fi and in some cases extending the range of coverage.

The technologies -- actually several different systems that all claim the name MIMO (multiple in-multiple out) -- have multiple built-in antennae along with features to take advantage of them. But so far they have been expensive, with routers priced as high as $200, according to industry analysts. The products also won't be backed by a standard until probably 2007, though they work with existing Wi-Fi gear.

Airgo Networks Inc., which has offered these types of chipsets since last year and counts Belkin Corp., Buffalo Technology (USA) Inc. and Cisco-Linksys LLC as customers, was set to introduce on Monday three chipsets intended for lower priced performance-boosted wireless LAN equipment. The Palo Alto, California, company planned to unveil a lower cost version of its current True MIMO chipset as well as two new chipsets, called True G and True AG, that Airgo said offer some of True MIMO's performance boost in wireless routers with list prices under $100.

Wireless LAN gear based on the True MIMO chipset typically delivers more than twice the real throughput of conventional 802.11g gear and gets through walls better, removing any "dead spots" around most homes, said Greg Raleigh, president and chief executive officer of Airgo. Through increased chip integration, Airgo has reduced the price of True MIMO, so access points using it should have list prices between US$129 and $149, down from between $149 and $199 today, he said. Lower prices on True MIMO products should appear within the next two months, he said.

But access point vendors will be able to go below $100 with boxes that use True G, a less powerful system that still gives a significant throughput boost and eliminates dead spots, Raleigh said. The True G routers should carry list prices between $69 and $99, and client PC Cards between $59 and $89, he said. The products should hit the market this month, he said. Gear made with TrueAG, which will work with both the IEEE 802.11a and 802.11g standards in different radio bands, should cost only slightly more than True G products, according to Airgo.

Sign up for ITworld's Daily newsletter
Follow ITworld on Twitter @IT_world

• Email
• Print
• Share
  • Slashdot
  • Digg
  • Stumble
  • Reddit
  • Newsvine