The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) said this week the 802.11 working group has unanimously approved draft 1.10 for the 802.11n specification.

All that is left now is for the IEEE to sign off the draft, which will be the final specification for the technology. However, the draft is not expected to be fully approved until 2008.

Agreement on the 1.10 spec is something of a turnaround for the 802.11 working group, which has been dogged by rumours of in-fighting. Last summer, the first draft of the spec failed to pass ballot, missing the required 75 per cent majority vote by a significant margin.

Nevertheless, kit vendors have been pushing draft “802.11n compatible” equipment since the draft specification was confirmed in January 2006. However, analysts and researchers have warned consumers and businesses to wait it out until the final spec is approved.

ABI Research said previously there is likely to be wide variability between “draft compatible” specs.