No global 5 GHz standard: the conflicts between the IEEE 802.11a standard and Europe's long-in-development Hiperlan-2 protocol aren't to be resolved, apparently, according to the EE Times. Forms of Hiperlan have been under considerations for several years, and although the specification has potentially identical or possibly superior characteristics to 802.11a, it isn't "productized", where 802.11a has shipping chipsets and soon-to-appear actual access points and cards.