Ultra-fast, short-range wireless standard 802.11ad has been officially approved by the IEEE, opening the door to more mainstream development. The WiGig Alliance, which announced plans to merge with the Wi-Fi Alliance earlier this year, hopes to speed adoption of 802.11ad now that a certification process is in place. Unlike the relatively new gigabit 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, 802.11ad or WiGig isn't meant to replace current-generation wireless networks. Instead, it can provide 7Gbps speeds over short distances — like between different devices in a room — over the 60GHz frequency, supplementing Wi-Fi.

Wilocity, which is on the WiGig Alliance board, demonstrated early products using the standard at last year's CES. In 2013, the company showed off a first wave of devices meant for consumers, including a Dell ultrabook, as well as a tri-band reference product that can connect to 60GHz WiGig, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and current-generation 2.5GHz / 5GHz wireless. The 802.11ad standard isn't quite here yet, but it's well on its way.