China has made significant progress towards the implementation
of a domestically developed wireless local area network (WLAN)
standard with the release of the first batch of compatible
products.
“The fact that a standard gets support of products is already
major progress for us,” said Liu Chaoyang, spokesman for the
Broadband Wireless IP Standard working group (BWIPS), a major
player pushing for the WLAN Authentication and Privacy
Infrastructure (WAPI) standard.
Liu said that China IWNCOMM Co., which developed the WAPI
protocol, will release the first wireless network card in
compliance with the Chinese standard today in Beijing.
IWNCOMM is expected to unveil three network cards and other
devices, including access points.
The release of the first WAPI-compatible network card means
Chinese companies have succeeded in developing WLAN hardware, a
critical step in promoting the Chinese standard.
Last Friday, Founder Technology, the second-largest computer
maker in China, announced that its A760 had become the first
WAPI-compatible product through software upgrading. It had obtained
a CCCi certificate, the official credentials needed to sell WLAN
equipment, devices and products in China after June 1.
The company reported that it has one product being tested by the
Chinese authorities and it will consider sending more notebook
products for testing in order to obtain the compulsory CCCi
certification.
Lenovo Group, the
leading computer maker in China and the Asia-Pacific region, said
some of its notebooks are being tested by the China Quality
Certification Center.
Founder Technology reports that it has added wireless modules to
its A760 and E3600 products to meet WAPI specifications with
assistance from IWNCOMM.
Dorothy Lai, a senior semiconductor analyst with US-based market
researcher Gartner Inc., said the release of WAPI-compatible
products will put some pressure on foreign players, which either
oppose the WAPI standard or have adopted a wait-and-see
attitude.
Currently, the 802.11 standards from the WI-FI Alliance are the
most popular international specifications. Neatly all the big names
in the industry, including US giants Intel, Broadcom and Texas
Instruments, are WI-FI members.
The alliance said earlier that its members will not ship any
WLAN equipment to China after June 1, worried that their
confidential techniques may be leaked to the WIPS group. It said
that the WAPI standard heavily favors Chinese companies because the
encryption method is controlled by the WIPS working group, composed
of 32 organizations and domestic firms and a Texas Instruments
joint venture.
However, the Chinese side insists that the security loopholes in
the currently popular 802.11b standard have been acknowledged
worldwide and that China has the right to protect its information
security.
Liu Chaoyang also said the WAPI standard only requires certain
interface data and will not lead to a leaking of intellectual
property rights for equipment or chip vendors.
Endorsements from major Chinese computer makers and the release
of Chinese hardware may lead to a chain reaction as many of the
multinationals won’t want to lose the world’s second-largest
computer market.
Some Taiwanese equipment and semiconductor companies have
already expressed their willingness to endorse the WAPI standard
and will supply compatible equipment.
Intel CEO Craig Barrett said in Taipei on Monday that his
company would try to resolve its dispute with the Chinese side
before the June 1 deadline. Intel announced last month that it
would not be able to meet the Chinese standard due to technical
difficulties.
He attended a groundbreaking ceremony of its second chip
assembly and test plant in China in Chengdu, Sichuan Province,
yesterday and is expected to visit northeast China’s Shenyang to
discuss what Intel can do in restructuring old industrial bases in
the region, according to Intel China spokesperson Jennifer Liu.
He will also meet key customers and government officials
tomorrow in Beijing. The WAPI standard is likely to be a major
topic in talks with Chinese officials.
Intel has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on its Centrino
processors since 2002, and notebooks with these processors have
become the most popular application for WLAN.
Dorothy Lai believes that although Intel has been in the
limelight owing to its aggressive push of Centrino processors, the
world’s biggest semiconductor company will not suffer much from the
implementation of China’s WAPI standard even if it fails to meet
the deadline.
“Even if Intel cannot ship Centrino processors, it can still
sell other Pentium processors,” she said. Centrinos account for a
small portion of Intel’s total shipments in China.
Lai predicts no compromise satisfactory to all parties will be
reached before June 1, but there might be concessions made from
both sides to solve the impasse after the deadline.
(China Daily April 8, 2004)