TOKYO—NTT East and NTT Corporation announced that they will launch a high-speed wireless local area network (LAN) service with a data transmission speed of 36 Megabits per second (Mbps) in the second quarter of 2002 at the earliest. The service, called Biportable, uses the 5 GHz band, one of the license-free bands.
Using either a personal digital assistant (PDA) or a PC with a wireless LAN card, users can access the Internet with the high speed. The NTT companies have been conducting a field test in central Tokyo since last March. They said they have verified their technologies through the five-month field test.
For launching commercial service, NTT in cooperation with a couple of vendors will develop smaller and more efficient terminals and access points than currently available by next year.
