Symbol Technologies and Telxon were operating radio networks in the 2.4 GHz ISM bands. IEEE 802.11 was not yet ratified, so Symbol and Telxon were free to define competing standards of communication at this frequency band. Symbol settled on frequency hopping as the most robust, agile and interference-tolerant approach to data communications while Telxon selected direct sequence technology which they felt afforded higher transfer speeds with adequate interference immunity.
Symbol Technologies and Telxon were operating radio networks in the 2.4 GHz ISM bands. IEEE 802.11 was not yet ratified, so Symbol and Telxon had freedom to define competing standards of communication at this frequency band. Symbol chose frequency hopping as the most robust, agile, and interference-tolerant approach to data communications while Telxon selected direct sequence technology which they felt offered higher transfer speeds with adequate interference immunity.