With support from more than fifteen major companies including Microsoft, Intel, Marvell, Nokia, and NEC announced today, the new Wireless Gigabit Alliance is pushing for yet another brand name wireless standard in the already overcrowded wireless spectrum. WiGig works on the 60 GHz frequency band and promises a 6 Gbps data transmission speed.

The 60 GHz band is an unlicensed portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that has typically been used by the intelligence community for point-to-point data links. It's best suited only for very short distance communication (under 2 kilometers) because it falls within the "absorption band" for oxygen. In other words, oxygen molecules readily absorb a 60 GHz wave's energy and weaken the signal. In satellite-to-satellite communication, the vacuum of space allows these types of waves to travel greater distances while the Earth's atmosphere acts as a huge shield against terrestrial signal interception.

Because of its short range application, the Alliance is grooming WiGig to be the in-home networking standard that allows for wireless HD streaming, virtual PC docking, as well as high-speed sync and file transfer.

The 60 GHz band also happens to be the same one that WirelessHD uses, a technology promoted by many of the same companies promoting WiGig, and already manufacturing products. The WiGig standard will not be published until the fourth quarter of 2009.