WASHINGTON-The Bush administration has reached an agreement with the Pentagon and vendors on how to test and manufacture new 5 GHz Wi-Fi products that avoid harmful interference to military radar systems, according to sources.
The accord paves the way for new 5 GHz Wi-Fi products to reach the market later this year, once the Federal Communications Commission establishes rules for equipment certification.
The 5 GHz pact, freeing up more than 255 megahertz for the Wi-Fi industry, has been long in coming. The agreement could even become a model for future government-industry sharing of the crowded airwaves.
Industry, military and government officials have been working on a fix at 5 GHz for the past three years, or ever since the National Telecommunications and Information Administration first announced it had a deal with the Department of Defense to designate hundreds of megahertz for Wi-Fi so long as short-range wireless Internet connections did not disrupt radar. The U.S. government then went on to get international agreements to expand Wi-Fi at 5 GHz at the 2003 World Radiocommunication Conference.
Recent testing of “dynamic frequency selection technology” involved equipment supplied by Atheros Communications, Cisco Systems Inc. and Motorola Inc.
The Bush administration could release an official statement on the 5 GHz Wi-Fi agreement within days.
