In this paper, we present the design of a compact planar monopole antenna for dual-band wireless communication applications. The proposed antenna is based on a planar structure composed by a CPW feed line and a rectangular ring with a vertical strip. The designed antenna has a small overall size of [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]mm3. Dual-band characteristics can be obtained by adjusting the distance between the rectangular ring and the ground plane of the CPW feed line, as well as the dimensions of the rectangular ring and the length of the vertical strip. A prototype of the proposed antenna which was fabricated and measured to validate the design reveals that there is a good agreement between the simulation and the experiment. The measured result shows that the antenna has the impedance bandwidths of 610[Formula: see text]MHz (2–2.61[Formula: see text]GHz) and 2600[Formula: see text]MHz (3.18–5.78[Formula: see text]GHz) with a reflection coefficient less than [Formula: see text]10[Formula: see text]dB covering all the LTE 2300, 2.4-GHz band, WiMAX, C-band and HiperLAN/2 applications. In addition, the dual-band monopole antenna exhibits almost omnidirectional radiation patterns and an appreciable gain over the operating frequency bands. Details of the proposed antenna design and both simulated and experimental results are analyzed and discussed.