Intel today said it would not be able to produce mobile chipsets by China's June 1 deadline to meet its new "Wired Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure" (WAPI) rule and standard.

The Chinese government announced plans for this proprietary national wireless LAN standard in November 2003 in an effort to boost business for Chinese companies.  The rule effectively requires international companies to collaborate with Chinese companies if they want to participate in the wireless market.  The Chinese standard is incompatible with Wi-Fi, and the rule would prohibit use of products that support the 802.11 wireless standard.

"We've been in constant contact with Chinese officials since the beginning of December on this issue," an Intel spokesman said. And while Intel has been working to sway the policy makers, the semiconductor giant has also been studying the WAPI standard.

"We have determined we are not able to produce products by the June 1 deadline that meet our quality standards, and we don't have a schedule or roadmap to produce those products," the spokesman said.

That means Intel will be unable to sell its Centrino chipset in China. The company will still be able to sell its Pentium M microprocessor and any of its other non-wireless products. China is the largest country in Intel's Asia Pacific business and is a "significantly important market" the spokesman said.

Although technical reasons are preventing Intel from making the June 1 deadline, the spokesman said, a number of side issues also exist.  For example, only portions of the WAPI spec have been made public. Only Chinese companies know the full spec, and international companies are required to work with local companies if they want to sell products that meet the spec. To do that it's necessary to share intellectual property, but China offers no protection for IP.

In addition, Intel believes that open standards are the proper approach to technology products.

"As a matter of philosophy, we continue to believe that proprietary closed standards specific to one country are the wrong business model," the Intel spokesman said.  "We believe that global standards are fundamental to making wireless LANs a viable technology worldwide."

Intel is not the first company to balk at a proprietary Chinese standard for wireless technology.  The Semiconductor Industry Association last month called upon China to withdraw the requirement.

"A unique Chinese national standard will slow the development of China's Information technology industries because it will hamper the ability of Chinese firms to access the innovations emerging from thousands of companies around the world and because it will make it more difficult for Chinese producers to export to world markets," said George Scalise, SIA president, in a statement last month. "China should adopt international standards for its own industry to compete globally, and it should participate in international standards bodies."

By: DocMemory
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