3Com is planning to expand into multiple areas of wireless networking, hoping that the new thrust will turn into a high-growth business that offsets torpid sales of its modems and network adapters.
This week at the Las Vegas Networld+Interop trade show, 3Com expects to roll out its sweeping plan for wireless networking equipment across four major areas:
- wireless "personal area networks" for home users;
- in-building wireless local area network (LAN) systems for corporations;
- wireless Internet access services for mobile professionals using 3Com's Palm VII device; and
- wide area network equipment for service providers.
But wireless networking technologies - although they might someday be a large and lucrative business - probably will not attract a lot of business for 3Com in the near term, according to John Morency, vice president of network solutions at consulting firm Renaissance Worldwide.
"It's good stuff, but it seems more like a sidelight from what CIOs [chief information officers] are focusing on now," Morency said. "I would put [wireless networking] in the bucket of productivity improvement, but that by itself is not going to cause customers to flock to you."
3Com is set to announce its first wireless LAN product, 3Com AirConnect, which is designed to connect PCs to an Ethernet network at 11 megabits per second - 10 times faster than existing standard implementations of wireless LANs. 3Com AirConnect uses the IEEE 802.11 High Rate specification, which has not been finalized officially.
Jeff Abramowitz, 3Com's director of product management for the wireless connectivity division, said that 3Com has waited to introduce a wireless LAN system until it could provide at least Ethernet-like speeds at a relatively affordable price point. However, 3Com has not announced final pricing for AirConnect, which is scheduled to be available this fall.
This summer, 3Com plans to launch Palm.net, a combination wireless data service and portal site for its Palm VII handheld device. The service is being provided through BellSouth Wireless Data.
3Com already has announced a wireless module for its Total Control access platform that uses packet-switched Code Division Multiple Access technology. The new system is designed to let communications carriers offer Internet access and other data services, according to 3Com. The 64-kilobit-per-second wireless module for Total Control is slated for delivery in the fourth quarter.
Future products in the 3Com wireless portfolio include a lower-priced home version of the 11-Mbps AirConnect system - carrying 3Com's HomeConnect home networking family brand - that the company expects to deliver around the beginning of next year. In the spring of 2000, 3Com plans to release "personal area network" products that work with the Bluetooth specification, a short-distance wireless specification that operates at about 1 Mbps.
