Imagine… a global wireless ecosystem of interoperable, high performance devices that work together seamlessly to connect people in the digital age.

A new not-for-profit organisation, the Wireless Gigabit Alliance, has recently formed in the US to establish a unified specification for 60GHz wireless technologies, thus enabling multi-gigabit-speed wireless communications among these devices and fuels industry convergence to a single radio.

Their vision: a global wireless ecosystem of interoperable, high performance devices that work together seamlessly to connect people in the digital age.

“The WiGig Alliance is developing a technology to enable unprecedented, multi-gigabit-speed wireless communications among devices and fuel industry convergence to a single radio using the readily available, unlicensed 60GHz spectrum,” says marketing workgroup chairman, and VP of marketing for Wilocity, Mark Grodzinsky.

“The technology enables over 10 times the speed of today’s wireless LANs. Streaming video, IP networking and wireless display and docking will all be possible at gigabit speeds with the WiGig specification.”

Mark says by bringing together a broad, diverse group of leading manufacturers of semiconductors, PCs, consumer electronics and handheld devices, the alliance is creating a comprehensive specification to drive a global ecosystem of easy-to-use, interoperable, high-speed wireless products.

“Today’s wireless technologies simply do not provide the bandwidth for the next generation of wireless applications.

“The current 2.4 and 5GHz bands have too much interference to be reliable for things like wireless I/O, uncompressed video streaming and wireless display. The WiGig technology, however, will achieve multi gigabit per second speeds and will provide consumers new applications that change the role that wireless plays in our lives.”

With it, you could download or transfer a full HD Blu-ray Disc in under one minute as compared to using today’s wireless LAN, which takes more than 15 minutes; it will enable fast network attached storage and back-up devices so that content is always available, reliable and secure; offer cordless computing – Gigabit speed wireless I/O can eliminate the cables between computing platforms and peripherals without performance compromises; and, present a pristine wireless display – wirelessly transport high quality video with the next generation of HD color depth and rates to TV or computer monitor.

“The WiGig Alliance specification is expected to be released in Q4 of 2009. WiGig Alliance members share a common vision of multi-vendor, multi-platform interoperability and coexistence. We aim to accelerate that goal.”

Members decide independently if and when they will develop products based on the WiGig specification. As each company has different product schedules, it will be several months before we know if anyone will immediately launch a product that supports the format.