802.11g finally becomes a standard

"A long-awaited standard for wireless LANs that offers more carrying capacity than the current IEEE 802.11b specification while using the same frequencies has won final approval," reports IDG News. People who have already bought systems that turn out to be non-standard should be able to get the upgraded. Comment: The numbers given for speed, of course, bear little relation to reality. The "54Mbps" claimed for 802.11g is more like 12Mbps (for a single user at 20m) compared with 3.5Mbps for 802.11b and 30Mbps for 802.11a. Remember, 802.11g is not a different technology, it is just 802.11b plus a crippled version of 802.11a that runs at the same radio frequency. In real life, 802.11a is still about 2.5x quicker .... and they are all a lot quicker than your retail BT ADSL at 0.5Mbps.