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Tuesday March 14, 2:33 PMMoribund China Wi-Fi standard shows signs of lifeSHANGHAI, March 14 (Reuters) - Declared virtually dead two years ago, a home-grown Chinese short-distance wireless technology opposed by Western firms including Intel Corp. has shown signs of making a quiet comeback.Last week, Chinese media reported 22 local firms had got together to set up the China Wired Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure Industrial Union on March 7, to support development of a standard known as WAPI. Its formation occurred around the same time that supporters of WAPI learned their application for international certification had been rejected, and vowed to appeal. "The Chinese government tried to force everyone to use WAPI in a very abrupt and sudden way in 2003 and it blew up in their face," said Dave Carini, an analyst at Beijing-based telecoms consultancy Norson Consulting. "What we're seeing now is that the interests that wanted WAPI in the first place still want it. They're just trying different tactics." The WAPI standard triggered controversy in 2003 when China announced that the standard would be the lone one from its category for use in the country, ruling out a competing wi-fi standard popular in the West. The move sparked an outcry from Western firms, which said they would be forced to work with Chinese companies to develop WAPI products since a small group of domestic players held key rights for the technology. The conflict reached a crescendo in early 2004 when Intel, a major supporter of wi-fi, said it would not support WAPI. China backed down a month later, saying it would not insist on WAPI for the domestic market, dealing a critical blow to the fledgling standard and leading many to declare its death. But the formation of the WAPI Industrial Union shows that Chinese firms intend to press ahead, analysts said. HEAVY HITTERS Among others, the union counts China's top four telecoms carriers, mobile firms China Mobile and China Unicom , as well as fixed-line carriers China Telecom and China Netcom , among its members, according to Chinese media reports. The nation's top PC maker, Lenovo Group Ltd. , is also a member. The group is pressing ahead despite the recent rejection of China's application to the International Organization for Standardization for global certification of WAPI, according to Chinese media reports. China will appeal that decision, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday. The recent flurry of activity shows that China has not given up on WAPI yet, as it tries to develop more advanced telecoms technologies that can eventually compete on a global stage. "It was dead the way they originally pitched it, as the one and only China version of wi-fi," Carini said. "There was no other option. Now they're finding ways that are a bit more (acceptable) internationally." |
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