After failing to become an international standard, China's WAPI standard is now seeking avenues to participate in other sectors.
WAPI (WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure) is a Chinese National Standard for Wireless LAN (GB 15629.11-2003). Although it is supposed to work on top of WiFi, compatibility with the security protocol used by the 802.11 wireless networking standard developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is in dispute.
Led by Lenovo and Founder, a new round of WAPI tests involving 26 domestic companies have entered a new stage of formal operation, a key step in the industrialization of WAPI in China.
Qin Zhiqiang, deputy secretary general of China's WAPI Alliance, says that it is more practical for the country to make WAPI industrialized than to have it become a sole international standard. Qin believes that industrialization is the key for WAPI's existence.
China's WAPI Alliance was formally set up in March 2006. It has 26 members including telecom operators like China Mobile, China Unicom, China Netcom, China Telecom and equipment manufacturers like Lenovo, Founder, Huawei, ZTE and Datang Telecom.