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Is it true that if using the "A" standard that the antennas must be built right into the unit and ar

Is it true that if using the "A" standard that the antennas must be built right into the unit and are not detachable?

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It really depends on where you are in the world and which regulations your products are designed to adhere to. Most of the world's 5GHz wireless LAN products are based upon the American FCC regulations, I'll break it down like this;

The FCC has defined two different parts of the spectrum for usage by indoor digital modulation-based equipment (such as 802.11a WLAN).

UNII Band #1 (5.15GHz – 5.25GHz)
The first of the three Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (UNII) bands is designed for indoor ONLY usage and is limited to a power output of 40mW from the device transceiver with a FIXED 6dBi gain antennae (max EIRP of 17dBm).

UNII Band #2 (5.25GHz – 5.35GHz)
The second of the three Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (UNII) bands is designed for indoor and outdoor usage and is limited to a power output of 200mW from the device transceiver with a fixed or non-fixed antennae with a maximum gain of 23dBi (max EIRP of 17dBm). However, if you're using UNII2 for internal LAN operations such as 802.11a, then you must adhere to all the UNII 1 regulations and this is why products such as the Cisco 1200 Series access points ship with fixed, integrated antennae.

This was first published in March 2004

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