Wi-Fi conflict not an issue: Aust defence - News - Communications

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Wi-Fi conflict not an issue: Aust defence

By James Pearce, ZDNet Australia
February 10, 2003
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Wi-Fi-conflict-not-an-issue-Aust-defence/0,130061791,120271899,00.htm

The Australian Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) has revealed it is unconcerned about interference from Wi-Fi products, a stark contrast to the position adopted by its United States counterparts.

The Defence Signals Directorate (DSD), the arm of the defence force in charge of Australia's communications and information technology security, told ZDNet Australia it is not currently in talks with the wireless networking industry, and have no plans to be so in the near future.

"Wi-Fi is low power and therefore of insignificant impact on Defence's surveillance and radio-frequency based communications," said a DSD spokesperson. This contrasts with the US Department of Defense (US DoD) officials' concerns that the cumulative effect of Wi-Fi products could interfere with the military's use of radar due to the two regions of spectrums overlapping.

Earlier this month the US DoD reached a compromise with industry which established a new radio frequency threshold for products using unlicensed spectrum, primarily Wi-Fi products.

Australia's DSD also confirmed commercial Wi-Fi would have no impact on its military communications as the local defence community had elected not to use the technology. "Due to security issues, Defence is not currently a user of Wi-Fi so there is no impact on its IT infrastructure," the DSD told ZDNet Australia .