WiGig Alliance completes spec for next-gen Wi-Fi

The Wireless Gigabit Alliance (WiGig) has announced that it has completed the specification for the next generation of Wi-Fi.

The new specification, which will be released to member companies in the first quarter of 2010, will be capable of data transfer rates of up to 7GB/s. It will also be backwards compatible with the 802.11 standard.

“WiGig has reached a milestone with the completion of its specification as promised by year end, demonstrating the organisation’s commitment to deliver,” said Craig Mathias, a principal with the wireless and mobile advisory firm Farpoint Group.

“By complementing Wi-Fi and enabling multi-gigabit speeds, the versatile specification is a very significant achievement on the road to the next generation of wireless LAN products.”

The new standard uses a differing frequency to existing 802.11 kit, which operates at 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies. It runs at 60GHz, but the WiGig group sees no reason why hardware cannot incorporate the standard.

“When we launched the WiGig Alliance in May, we announced our plan to complete the industry’s first unified 60 GHz specification by Q4 2009, and we are proud to deliver on this promise to the industry,” said Dr. Ali Sadri, president and chairman of the Wireless Gigabit Alliance.

“We’re rapidly paving the way for the introduction of the next generation of high-performance wireless products - PCs, mobile handsets, TVs and displays, Blu-ray disc players, digital cameras and many more.”

WiGig has strong manufacturer support, including Intel, AMD Samsung, LG and Nvidia.