USRobotics going slow on draft 11n

USRobotics today said that it is developing next-generation wireless products. But the company is breaking ranks with its larger consumer networking competitors and taking a more cautious approach to fielding draft 802.11n gear.

USRobotics said that it won’t release draft 11n products until the fourth quarter of this year, citing product incompatibility concerns and the interoperability problems shown by the current crop of draft 11n products. Specifically cited were " problems ... with legacy and neighbor networks" and "issues with interoperability and legacy networks".

The announcement makes USRobotics the first member company of the Enhanced Wireless Consortium (EWC) to back off from the rush to market. Testing of initial draft 11n products from Linksys, Netgear and Buffalo Technology have so far revealed buggy products that both severely interfere with legacy 802.11b and g products, and which don’t even provide interoperability among draft 11n products.