Wi-Fi Alliance and Wireless Gigabit Alliance to unify

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Multi-gigabit WiGig technology gaining momentum; certification and technology
development efforts to consolidate in Wi-Fi Alliance

Austin, Texas and Santa Clara, Calif., Jan. 3, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Wi-Fi
Alliance® and the Wireless Gigabit (WiGig) Alliance have executed a Memorandum
of Understanding (MOU) outlining their plans to consolidate activity in Wi-Fi
Alliance. The agreement builds on more than two years of collaboration between
the organizations, in which WiGig Alliance developed the groundbreaking WiGig
technology specifications including MAC-PHY and Protocol Adaptation Layers
(PALs) and Wi-Fi Alliance initiated work to develop an interoperability
certification for 60 GHz products.

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"This is an exciting technology, and has been an important highlight of our
certification roadmap for some time, so we are delighted to take this step,"
said Wi-Fi Alliance president and CEO Edgar Figueroa. "Combining the expertise
of Wi-Fi Alliance and WiGig Alliance will deliver a terrific user experience
with 60 GHz solutions, and will help ensure that a full range of interoperable
WiGig solutions reaches the market as quickly as possible."

WiGig technology has continued to gain significant momentum, and will soon bring
users closer to a future of truly seamless wireless connectivity complementing
the traditional Wi-Fi® networking. WiGig offers short-range multi-gigabit
connections for applications ranging from high-definition WiGig Display
Extensions (WDE), to peripheral connectivity and I/O cable replacement such as
WiGig Serial Extension (WSE), WiGig Bus Extension (WBE) and WiGig SDIO Extension
(WDS). Early 60 GHz implementations based on the WiGig specifications are
entering the market now and ABI Research forecasts that by 2016, annual
shipments of devices with both Wi-Fi and WiGig technology will reach 1.8
billion.

"We set out four years ago with the simple goal of realizing a global wireless
ecosystem of interoperable, high-performance devices that would operate
seamlessly. In that time there have been many challenges to overcome but we have
now created a market that simply did not previously exist. Consolidating
activities with the Wi-Fi Alliance at this juncture will ensure WiGig's
mainstream success to the benefit of technology users everywhere," said Dr Ali
Sadri, President and Chairman of the WiGig Alliance.

"It's clear that 60 GHz technology is an important part of the future of
wireless connectivity, and a significant complement to traditional Wi-Fi
networking," said Peter Cooney, practice director for semiconductors at ABI
Research. "With so many devices expected to incorporate both traditional Wi-Fi
and WiGig, it just makes sense for activities to consolidate under the Wi-Fi
Alliance organization."

Consolidation of the activities in Wi-Fi Alliance is intended to bring greater
efficiency, ensure closely-harmonized connectivity and application-layer
solutions using the technology, and leverage WiGig technology know-how across
the range of Wi-Fi technologies. The first Wi-Fi Alliance interoperability
certification program for WiGig products is targeted to launch late this year.

Under the terms of the MOU, the organizations will enter a period of diligence
and planning, with the intent to complete transition of both the technology
development activity and WiGig assets to Wi-Fi Alliance by the middle of 2013.

About Wi-Fi Alliance
www.wi-fi.org
The Wi-Fi Alliance is a global non-profit industry association of hundreds of
leading companies devoted to seamless connectivity. With technology development,
market building, and regulatory programs, the Wi-Fi Alliance has enabled
widespread adoption of Wi-Fi worldwide. The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED program was launched
in March 2000. It provides a widely-recognized designation of interoperability
and quality and it helps to ensure that Wi-Fi-enabled products deliver the best
user experience. The Wi-Fi Alliance has completed more than 15,000 product
certifications, encouraging the expanded use of Wi-Fi products and services in
new and established markets.Wi-Fi®, Wi-Fi Alliance®, WMM®, Wi-Fi Protected
Access® (WPA), the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED logo, the Wi-Fi logo, the Wi-Fi ZONE logo
and the Wi-Fi Protected Setup logo are registered trademarks of the Wi-Fi
Alliance. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Protected Setup, Wi-Fi
Multimedia, WPA2, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Passpoint, Passpoint, Wi-Fi CERTIFIED
Miracast, Miracast, Wi-Fi ZONE and the Wi-Fi Alliance logo are trademarks of the
Wi-Fi Alliance.

About WiGig Alliance:
www.wigig.org
The WiGig Alliance was formed to establish a global ecosystem of high-speed and
easy-to-use wireless devices that seamlessly work together to connect people in
the digital age. WiGig technology enables multi-gigabit wireless communications
among consumer electronics, handheld devices and PCs, and drives industry
convergence to a single radio using the readily available, unlicensed 60 GHz
spectrum. The organization brings together the world's leading manufacturers of
semiconductors, personal computers, consumer electronics and handheld devices.
For more information, please visit www.wigig.org.

SOURCE Wi-Fi Alliance

Karl Stetson, Edelman for Wi-Fi Alliance, +1-206-268-2215,
karl.stetson@edelman.com, or Martyn Gettings, WiGig Alliance, +44-1636-812152,
Press@WiGig.org