Intel scores UK 54Mbit wireless monopoly

SOURCES CLOSE TO the wireless action tell us that Intel has won the licence for 54Mbit connections in the UK, and is likely to be the only manufacturer to hold the trump card for quite some months.

And it is going to take advantage of its lead by releasing a product in week 20, cutting the other players out of the equation until they get a licence too.

But it's not all roses, roses for 802.11a in Europe, the INQ learns. There is only one UK spec 54Mbit part "on the continent", as our parents used to call it, and the number of channels has now dropped from eight to four.

The software is likely to differ between the UK and continental Europe, the same sources tell us.

And then there's our famous CE testing which of course has to run its due course before you can release even a toothpick into the bEurocratic retail channels.

But UK Intel resellers are currently rubbing their hands with glee, because the markets all theirs, all theirs, for months… µ