Based on this important FCC decision, end equipment manufacturers using TI’s 22Mbit/sec solutions will be able to rapidly deploy higher performance products into the growing WLAN marketplace after TI’s PBCC(tm)-22 technology is granted a waiver by the FCC.

The impact of the FCC’s decision is great news for the entire wireless LAN industry since it should speed deployment of new products to market and accelerate the overall adoption of wireless networking by consumers, said Mike Hogan, general manager of TI’s Wireless Networking Business Unit. TI has been awaiting this expected FCC action to seek FCC approval for systems using our chips and PBCC-22 technology. After receiving the FCC’s interim waiver grant, TI’s WLAN technology should quickly find its way into end products.

In its May 10 decision, the FCC specifically recognized two direct sequence spread spectrum technologies that would be considered for waivers, TI’s PBCC and wideband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (W-OFDM). Other technologies with similar transmission and interference properties will also be eligible. The FCC decision may be found at: http://www.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2001/db0511/

fcc01158.doc. The PBCC and W-OFDM technologies are specifically mentioned in paragraph 6 of that decision.

TI’s PBCC-22 technology has been designed to be spectrally identical to and backward compatible with existing 802.11b systems, allowing seamless interoperability between new high-rate 22Mbit/sec and existing 11Mbit/sec IEEE 802.11b products. In addition, as part of the IEEE 802.11g working group, TI’s PBCC-22 technology is one of the final candidates under consideration for adoption as the standard for IEEE 802.11g high-rate solutions.