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.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.