Ubuntu
bcmwl package

  1. Bug #713528
  2. Comment #2

Comment 2 for bug 713528

Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote : Re: bcmwl can't see channels > 11 (2.462GHz) any more

Seemingly confirmed by Broadcom themselves...

The new driver "brcm80211" which first appeared in kernel 2.6.38, and apparently first enabled in natty-beta-1 suffers from this same issue.

This led me to comments from Broadcom developers explaining why channels >11 are disabled by default:
"Regulatory Implementation
This generation of chips contain additional regulatory support independent of the driver. The devices use a single worldwide regulatory domain, with channels 12-14 (2.4 GHz band) and channels 52-64 and 100-140 (5 GHz band) restricted to passive operation. Transmission on those channels is suppressed until appropriate other traffic is observed on those channels."
[http://linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/brcm80211]

I think it is safe to assume that Broadcom disabled channels >11 in (bcm)wl also, for the same reason. So the bug is confirmed and intentional, for radio regulatory compliance :(