Broadband market leader launches wireless interoperability - straight out of the box
Paris, September 10, 2001 - Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) today announced that the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA) has awarded its prestigious Wi-Fi certification to Alcatel's Speed TouchTM 570 - Wireless Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) router. Wi-Fi stands for "the Standard for Wireless Fidelity" and is becoming the global standard for wireless LAN interoperability. This certification allows Alcatel to use the Wi-Fi logo on its Speed Touch 570 product.
Alcatel's Speed Touch 570 becomes commercially available in September 2001 and is currently in evaluation and testing with many of Alcatel's DSL customers around the world. Both wireless accessories, the Speed Touch 110 (Wireless PC Card) and the Speed Touch 120 (Wireless USB Adapter) will also become commercially available at that time. Together with these accessories, the Alcatel Speed Touch 570 makes high speed wireless home networking a reality at last.
"Alcatel's Speed Touch 570 Wireless router makes Internet connectivity available throughout the home or office. Cable-free access to intelligent networks means users can be connected wherever they are, whenever they want, all at the high speeds that ADSL offers ", said Willem Verbiest, president of Alcatel's DSL activities. " By supporting the IEEE 802.11b High Rate standard, Alcatel is making a significant contribution to wireless interoperability as a wide array of wireless products will become compatible straight out of the box".
WECA was founded to drive the adoption of one globally accepted standard for high-speed, wireless, local area networking: the IEEE 802.11b High Rate standard. Products built to the new standard operate in the 2.4 GHz radio band and transmit at a raw data rate of 11 Mbps. Unified support of this standard facilitates the rapid deployment and adoption of these products to ensure global, broadband, wireless connectivity across the enterprise, small office, public access and home markets.
About the Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance
The Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance (WECA) is a nonprofit organization formed in 1999 to certify interoperability of Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11b) products and to promote Wi-Fi as the global, wireless LAN standard across all market segments.
Membership in WECA is open to all companies who support the Wi-Fi standard, including any member manufacturer that would like to submit its Wi-Fi-based product for interoperability testing. For more information, please visit www.wi-fi.org.
About Alcatel DSL
Alcatel is the world's leading supplier of DSL solutions, helping service providers everywhere deploy an expanded range of revenue producing offerings and applications such as high speed Internet access, voice over DSL, and video services.
Alcatel's DSL technology is also offered in an advanced range of customer premises equipment, the Alcatel Speed Touch(TM) family of DSL modems, routers, and voice and data gateways supporting multi-line voice and data service over a single telephone access line.
About Alcatel
Alcatel builds next generation networks, delivering integrated end-to-end voice and data networking solutions to established and new carriers, as well as enterprises and consumers worldwide. With 110,000 employees and sales of EURO 31 billion in 2000, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. | |
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