New CWNA Exam Debuts on 5/4/2012

These are unquestionably boom times for wireless networking, so it stands to reason that wireless networking jobs are also on the upswing. That helps to explain the likewise burgeoning popularity and reach of the Certified Wireless Networking Professional (CWNP) certification program, which now even features  a Twitter jobs feed (@CWNPJobs, which lists 20 open positions for the period from 4/30 through 5/2/2012).

But wireless technology keeps changing all the time across the board, what with faster WLAN technologies on the way (802.11ac, for example, with its 1 Gbps speeds) as well as a rapidly expanding wide-area wireless networking infrastructure through such technologies as WiMAX, and LTE which are moving into true fourth generation (4G) capabilities around the world. That’s undoubtedly why Planet3 Wireless (the company behind the CWNP program and its content) is revving the Certified Wireless Network Administrator (CWNA) exam in a couple of days, from version PW0-104 to PW0-105 (which also happens to be this cert’s Pearson VUE exam code as well).

New exam gets new official study guide too

Next week, on May 8, 2012, long-time certification study guide publisher Sybex (now an imprint of J Wiley & Sons) will also release the first study guide for this new exam: CWNA: Certified Wireless Network Administrator Official Study Guide: Exam PW0-105(David D. Coleman and David A. Westcott, ISBN: 11812779X, 768 pp, paperback, list $59.99, Amazon: $37.79). It won’t be too long before other publishers follow suit, and offer competing products for the new CWNA exam, either, and the usual other supporting materials — practice exams, flash cards, and so forth — are sure to hit the market soon, too.

The old exam will remain live through then end of July (7/31/2012) so those prepping for the PW0-104 version still have some time to finish prepping for and take this exam. But after that, it’s PW0-105 all the way!