Apple claims 802.11n Wide Channels Are Not Allowed In Some Countries

Here's a mystery for which the web doesn't seem to have an answer for so far: Apple claims that the use of a 40 MHz Wide Channel for 802.11n Wifi is not allowed in Austria, Estonia, Germany, Japan, Latvia, Slovakia, Spain and Great Britain. Consequently, Apple.fr says the new Airport Extreme is 5x quicker than the previous product while Apple.de advertises the Airport Extreme as 2.5x quicker.

I've done some research as to why this should not be allowed in Germany but came up empty handed. Other web sites such as this one have the same question. Anybody got an explanation for this?

Comments

[John D]

I believe that the UK are sorting this out, but need to ratify a few things. Try looking into ofcom on google and see what they are doing. I guess it will be for the same reason in Germany and others, or at least similar.

[Gabe Frost]

These countries currently don't allow channel bonding; however, the 40MHz lobbying is happening now. Time will tell.

[Martin]

Hi Gabe,

This one's really a mystery to me as the German IT media has not picked up on it yet. Google searches I ran on the topic revealed nothing either. Also, I kind of remember that I've seen channel bonding 11g products in German electronic stores. Next time I go I will take a closer look again.

What I would really like to know is which law/standard etc. says that 40 MHz channels in the 5 GHz band are not allowed in Germany and other countries. Any idea?

Cheers,
Martin