USR tries to head off 11g at the pass...

U.S. Robotics today announced free 54 Mbps XLerator Technology upgrades for its line of 22 Mbps wireless networking products that are based on TI's ACX100 chipset.USR's release touts "data throughput rates comparable to 54 Mbps draft standard wireless products" at lower cost, "up to 30 percent greater range", and with "enhanced" security.

Although the cost argument may be valid (a quick check of on-line prices showed the lowest price for the USR2249 Access Point as $77 vs. $115 for Linksys' WAP54G), and 256bit WEP may be slightly more secure than 128bit, any range or speed claims should be taken with a large grain of salt (as they should with any WLAN products).

As tempting as this news may be, not included in this or any future upgrade is compatibility with draft-802.11g equipment, since the TI chipset can't support that standard. All USR 22Mbps products, however, are 802.11b compatible.Looks to us like a good deal for existing customers, and maybe for price-sensitive buyers who don't care about 802.11g compatibility.

But perhaps the best deal is for clearance retailers like TigerDirect (which is quoted in USR's press release), that now may have a better way to clear their shelves of "22Mbps" inventory.