said by Sabre:This isn't trying to be insulting. I'm asking honestly. If IEEE isn't really the problem, then what can be done to accelerate the process in the future? Because this is definitely taking too long.
In this case, you have to look at the history of 802.11n for your answer...
Earlier wireless standards working groups didn't have to start out with as any proposals... Additionally, back when the earlier standards were being written, you didn't have as many people involved because you only had a handful of vendors making the equipment.
Without changing the governing laws of the IEEE, there really would be no way to speed up approval process. The problem stems from the fact that all of the companies want feature X or process y to be a certain way in the standard. And since your are essentially dealing with a democracy that puts competing groups face to face, you have to realize that it is not going to be quick. The problem is the players. They need to realize that they are dragging everyone down and pushing back the release date on a product that will make them income.