Motorola introduces Wi-Fi card for 2.4, 4.9 GHz
Motorola recently announced the launch of the WDE1000, which the vendor giant touts as the first 2.4 GHz and 4.9 GHz dual-band Wi-Fi card for citywide and ad-hoc connectivity.
Although part of Motorola’s MotoMesh portfolio, the WDE1000 dual-band card is a standards-based product that can be used with any 802.11b/g network, said Rick Rotondo, director of marketing for Motorola’s mesh-networks product group. The card’s unique antenna design creates 18 dBm of gain at 2.4 GHz and 20 dBm at 4.9 GHz, he said.
Other features of the dual-band card are its ability to work in extreme temperature environments — from -30° C (-22° F) to 60° C (140° F) — and its ability to support encryption schemes such as AES, Rotondo said. An antenna port on the card allows a cable connection to an external antenna, and the 4.9 GHz radio in the card can be configured to work in 5 MHz, 10 MHz or 20 MHz channels, he said.
Commercially available, the WDE1000 card has been beta-tested in Tulsa, Okla.
“Motorola’s Wi-Fi card has tremendous 802.11 range and will allow us to stay connected while on patrol,” said Tom Vallely, police department corporal for the City of Tulsa, in a statement. “It will allow us to tap into mission-critical, high-bandwidth applications, turning patrol cars into mobile offices.”
In other news, Motorola released the HC700-G, its newest hand-held integrating data capture and local area network (LAN) and wireless LAN connectivity through GSM, GPRS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless technology. The hand-held is designed for mobile work forces in a variety of industries, including field-force automation, field sales, shipping, transportation, logistics, manufacturing and public safety.
In addition, Verizon Wireless announced the availability of the Motorola Q, a hand-held device being touted as the newest competition to Research in Motion’s BlackBerry personal digital assistant. The device offers integrated Bluetooth 1.2 wireless technology for communicating with compatible headsets, car kits and other devices, as well as EV-DO access for data downloads. The hand-held runs on Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 software and lets users check e-mail and review documents over Verizon Wireless’ BroadbandAccess network.