Date:23/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/23/stories/2006082302671800.htm

Business

Wi-Fi Alliance selects Wipro for pre-certification

Special Correspondent

BANGALORE: Texas-based Wi-Fi Alliance has selected Wipro Technologies to become an authorised pre-certification test lab.

The lab will allow Wipro to pre-test products for its alliance members who seek Wi-Fi certification.

The Wi-Fi Alliance, an industry trade association, is entering India for the first time. Its 300-member companies promote the growth of wireless local area networks (WLAN).

3,000 products

The Managing Director of the Wi-Fi Alliance, Frank Hanzlik, told presspersons here on Tuesday that the alliance had already certified about 3,000 products produced by manufacturers of top brands across the globe in the WLAN ecosystem like computer and networking equipment manufacturers, semi- conductor makers, systems integrators, software companies, telecom carriers, service providers and consumer products manufacturers.

Mr. Frank Hanzlik said a large number of Wi-Fi Alliance member companies had large-scale operations in India and many of them relied on pre-certification testing as an important step on the quality assurance process.

"Hence, Wipro's expertise and facility would be an excellent addition to our worldwide lab presence," he said.

Wipro Global IT Service Lines President Suresh Vaswani said the company had achieved a revenue growth of 80 per cent in product testing at $57 million during the last quarter and the relationship with the Wi-Fi Alliance would further enhance its WLAN testing capability.

Dedicated lab

Wipro has established a dedicated test lab with its Bangalore-based test facilities that will service Wi-Fi Alliance members around the world. This is only the third offshore facility of the alliance, which had earlier signed tie-ups with the University of New Hampshire and ITRI of Taiwan.