Broadband Reports and CommsDesign say the first vote by members of the IEEE 802.11 working group on Draft 1.0 failed to reach the 75 percent majority required for acceptance.

Companies on different side of the argument were quick to suggest that the whole process is either broken, or all part and parcel of the standardization process, and the vote was as expected.

According to Airgo Networks CEO Greg Raleigh: "Today's outcome proves that draft 1.0 was not as stable as some in the industry would have us believe. It calls into question the validity of so-called 'draft n' products. Airgo will continue to pursue its strategy of waiting until a more mature, stable draft is established before introducing products that comply.”

Meanwhile, Atheros Communications played down the significance of the result of the first ballot, which it said was “as expected”.

The company noted that in the history of all 802.11 standards it is extremely rare for a first draft to succeed in its first letter ballot.

“Task Group N (TGn) will now review all submitted comments. The time schedule for the completion/ratification of the 802.11n standard has not changed. The IEEE membership had assumed that the draft specification would not pass after the first letter ballot, and took this step into consideration when developing the process timeline. A ratified 802.11n standard is still on track for mid-2007,” Atheros said in a statement.

Leading 802.11n chip contenders include:

• Airgo says their current True MIMO products will work with 802.11n products. Well sure. But ratcheting down to standard IEEE 802.11a/b/g speeds is not what most people would define as compatible.
  
  
• Broadcom says their Intensi-fi technology incorporates all mandatory elements of the IEEE 802.11n draft specification and is designed to be software upgradable once the standard is finalized.
  
  
• Atheros says their XSPAN family including the AR5008, demonstrated at CES 2006, are the first to be based on the draft 802.11n specification.
  
  
• Marvell says their TopDog™ branded family of 802.11n IEEE draft compliant products are targeting consumer, enterprise, and mobile markets. They support multiple antenna configurations including 3x3, 2x3, 2x2 and 1x2; for applications like wireless streaming of HDTV and multimedia content throughout the home.