The HomeRF Working Group has tacitly admitted defeat in its battle with 802.11 to become the wireless data home networking standard of choice (see HomeRF Discloses Future Plans).

The group says it will now concentrate on enhancing the HomeRF specification's voice capabilities. "Planned enhancements will also allow HomeRF to complement other wireless standards, including 802.11," the group says. Intel Corp. signaled the exodus away from HomeRF last year, when it announced it would support 802.11b instead.

The group is exploiting the fact that its specification is based on DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications), the technology behind cordless phones. The current HomeRF 2.0 spec enables a family to have up to eight cordless phones running off one connection. The 2.1 revision promises greater range and a handoff between nodes. The HomeRF group believes this will enable the standard to be used in large homes and small offices. As it stands, voice support is not part of the 802.11b spec.

— Dan Jones, Senior Editor, Unstrung
http://www.unstrung.com