Wireless Connectivity Soon Available for Online Console Gaming

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. MSFT.O has won federal approval for a wireless adapter for its Xbox video game console that allows players to connect to the Internet without cabling, according to a posting on a regulatory Web site.
The site for the Office of Engineering and Technology of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission shows that approval for the unit was granted late on Thursday.

A Microsoft spokeswoman said the FCC posted the information about the device in error, but she confirmed the adapter had been approved. She said the government office had agreed to a request to keep product details confidential ahead of a planned product launch.

Microsoft declined to say when the launch would be.

The approval on the federal office's site includes a number of exhibits, among them internal and external photographs of the device, as well as the user's manual that would presumably ship with the product.

However, the spokeswoman said the photos on the FCC Web site are not pictures of the final product.

The unit that is shown is black, with an antenna on the right side and the green "XBOX" logo stamped on its top. It also has a stamp that says "54 Mbps," a common reference to the wireless standard for speeds of 54 megabits per second.

The application for the device's authorization, also posted on the FCC site, listed Advance Data Technology Corp. of Taiwan as the technical contact.

The documents did not list any pricing details, and the Microsoft spokeswoman did not disclose them.

A number of other companies, including the Linksys unit of Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO.O , make and market wireless adapters to connect online-enabled game consoles to the Internet. Those adapters generally sell for around $100.