The announcement at CES (News - Alert) of the unification between the Wi-Fi Alliance (News - Alert) and WiGig aims to promote and set standards for 60Ghz wireless technology, maturing the WiGig technology into the mainstream.

The deal comes after nearly three years of talks between both alliances.

WiGig takes advantage of the unlicensed 60Ghz band, enabling speeds of up to 7Gbps across the frequency. WiGig has been focusing on the technology specifications while the Wi-Fi Alliance focused more on interoperability concerns.

Both physical and media access layers have been approved by IEEE (News - Alert).

WiGig President Ali Sadri stated that nobody could have predicted what a runaway success 2012 would have been for the company, citing that they are now in the best possible position to progress through certification and the initial stages of commercialization.

“I am really pleased to see such positive steps being taken by industry leading companies. We are getting much closer to realizing our goal,” said Sadri.

The goal Sadri refers to is to jointly certify Wi-Fi and WiGig devices in late 2013. While the technology behind WiGig is fairly different from Wi-Fi in terms of performance and range, most implementations of 60Ghz technology will likely co-exist alongside traditional Wi-Fi technology, including the Wi-Fi Alliance's own gigabit wireless networking initiative dubbed 802.11ac, which will work in the 5Ghz airwave.

According to Mark Grodzinsky, vice president of marketing at Wilocity, a maker of 60GHz chips, the first product to hit the market with the technology will be the Dell (News - Alert) Latitude 6430U Windows 8 ultrabook. 

Other laptops equipped with the technology will come soon after.

WiGig is not the only game in town, though. Late last year, another company, Silicon Image (News - Alert), announced plans to use the 60Ghz airwaves to deliver video and gaming images from handsets to larger screens inside the home.

Want to learn more about the impact and potential future of White Spaces? Then be sure to attend the Super Wi-Fi Summit, collocated with ITEXPO Miami 2013, Jan 29- Feb. 1 in Miami, Florida.  Stay in touch with everything happening at Super Wi-Fi Summit. Follow us on Twitter.