[ISN] China grants WLAN technology rights to more companies

From: InfoSec News (isn@private)
Date: Wed Jan 07 2004 - 04:33:56 PST

  • Next message: InfoSec News: "[ISN] Japanese IT businesses turn to Gods to ward off viruses, hackers"

    http://www.nwfusion.com/news/2004/0106chinagrant.html
    
    By Sumner Lemon and Henry Lee
    IDG News Service, 01/06/04
    
    The Chinese government has granted licensing rights for the security
    protocol at the heart of China's national WLAN standard to nine more
    companies, a spokeswoman for the State Encryption Management Committee
    said Tuesday.
    
    Called GB15629.11-2003, the Chinese WLAN standard is very similar to
    the IEEE's 802.11 standard, commonly known as Wireless Fidelity or
    Wi-Fi, but it uses a different security protocol developed locally,
    called WAPI, or WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure.
    
    "Because the 802.11 or Wi-Fi standard is not so secure, a more secure
    standard is needed for WLAN," said Li Jie, a spokeswoman at SEMC's
    Liaison Office.
    
    The Chinese WLAN standard took effect on Dec. 1, 2003, although a
    transition period has been granted for certain WLAN products that
    extends the compliance deadline to June 1. Vendors that want to sell
    WLAN gear in China must comply with the new standard by that date.
    
    The implementation of the standard has caused consternation among
    U.S.-based industry groups, including the U.S. Information Technology
    Office and Wi-Fi Alliance, over questions of interoperability with
    Wi-Fi and regulations requiring foreign WLAN equipment makers to enter
    into coproduction agreements with Chinese companies that have been
    granted the rights to license the technology.
    
    Initially, the rights to license WAPI were granted to 11 Chinese
    companies: Legend Group Ltd., Huawei Technologies, Shenzhen Mingwah
    Aohan High Technology, Wuxi Jiangnan Computer Technology Research
    Institute, Shanghai Koal Software, Shenzhen ZTE IC Design, SDT Telecom
    Group, Chengdu Westone Information Industry, China IWNCOMM, Shenyang
    Neusoft and Beijing Watch Data System.
    
    That list has now been expanded to around 20 companies, Li said. The
    names of the latest companies to be granted licensing rights for WAPI
    have not yet been made public and will be released at a later date,
    she said.
    
    While any Chinese company that has been approved to produce commercial
    encryption products can apply for the rights to license WAPI, the
    Chinese government will not grant licensing rights to foreign
    companies, Li said. Existing regulations do not permit foreign
    companies to have access to commercial encryption technology used in
    China, she said.
    
    Chinese companies have been granted the rights to license WAPI at no
    cost, Li said. However, foreign companies will be charged by their
    coproduction partners to integrate WAPI into their WLAN gear, she
    said.
    
    USITO has expressed concerns that the requirement for foreign vendors
    to enter into coproduction agreements could put them at a disadvantage
    to their Chinese competitors. In addition, Wi-Fi Alliance has noted
    that a Chinese WLAN standard that is not compatible with 802.11 could
    lead to higher prices for Chinese end users and create
    interoperability problems.
    
    "This will add cost to end users but considering the higher safety the
    new standard provides, it is acceptable," Li said.
    
    Henry Lee is an editor at China Computerworld, an IDG News Service
    affiliate.
    
    
    
    -
    ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org
    
    To unsubscribe email majordomo@private with 'unsubscribe isn'
    in the BODY of the mail.
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Jan 07 2004 - 06:39:52 PST