In a Xinhau News Agency report published May 29, the Chinese Broadband Wireless IP Standard Group (BWIPS) accused American computer chipmaker Intel of unfairly dominating the market with its encryption standard for wireless local area networks (WLANs).

BWIPS said that the standard in question, IEEE802.11, was developed by Intel (News - Alert), and as such its acceptance in March by vote of the International Organization for Standardization (known as ISO for short) is unfair.

According to the report WAPI, China’s national standard for WLAN encryption, also applied for ISO approval last October, but was voted down.

BWIPS said in the report that it has collected 49 pieces of evidence against IEEE, showing that ISO rules were violated during the voting process.

In the fast tack voting that ended March 7, Xinhau said 8 votes went to WAPI (out of 30 national bodies casting ballots) and 24 votes went to IEEE (out of 31 national bodies casting ballots).

Also in the report, telecom analyst Li Jinliang was paraphrased as saying that WAPI lost the vote because Intel dominates the WLAN market, and as a result effectively owns the national bodies that cast ballots.

BWIPS has filed two appeals with ISO, asking the organization to overturn the vote and launch an investigation.

source: news.tmcnet.com

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