The group behind a new wireless technology designed to connect consumer devices at up to 7GB/s – WiGig – expects there to be a delay in release of commercial products supporting the standard due to the body’s planned merger with the WiFi Alliance. However, the group is certain that deeper integration with the WiFi world will enable WiGig to reach a far wider audience.

In a video interview conducted just days after the WiGig Alliance announced plans to unify the two groups under the Wi-Fi Alliance banner, Dr Ali Sadri, WiGig Alliance Chair, spoke with Mobile World Live to outline the rationale behind the deal.

“Our vision was to develop a standard, have some testing events, finally certify it and hopefully create a market. I think we’ve done almost all of them. Now… we’ve achieved 80 percent of what we want to do,” he explained. “The next 20 percent is probably the most difficult one – make it available to everyone and interoperable so very device connects seamlessly to one another. The value the WiFi Alliance brings to this is tremendous. They are the most credible certification organisation in the world and have amazing marketing capabilities and that’s exactly what WiGig needs to move from 80 percent to 100 percent.

When Mobile World Live last spoke to Sadri in mid-2012, he had hoped to see official WiGig certification in early 2013. That timescale has slipped due to the integration logistics of the merger. “Based on our existing plan we should have certification in place later this year so there’s a little slip of the programme, maybe even beginning of ‘14,” he admitted. “I think the show for WiGig will be 2014.”

The merger builds on more than two years of collaboration between the organisations in which the WiGig Alliance developed the WiGig technology specification and the Wi-Fi Alliance initiated work to develop interoperability certification for WiGig’s 60-GHz products. High-profile backers of WiGig technology include Broadcom, Cisco, Huawei, Intel, Microsoft and Samsung.

Elsewhere in the interview Sadri revealed that merger talks between the two alliances began in early 2012 and took much of the year to confirm. He also outlined his belief that the move is a positive deal for both sets of technologies.

View the full video interview here.