Bluetooth SIG not to use UWB technology

WASHINGTON, INDIA: The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) – the privately held, not-for-profit trade association that oversees the development of Bluetooth standards and the licensing of the Bluetooth technologies and trademarks to manufacturers – has abandoned its plans to use the UWB technology it acquired from the WiMedia Alliance.

In place of WiMedia Alliance, which closed down in March 2009, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group is focusing on 60GHz technology as a possible transport for a future high-rate Bluetooth, according to a statement from SIG.

According to industry watchers, the decision by the SIG to is yet another setback for standard UWB wireless technology – which was, at one time, viewed as the major means for high-data-rate wireless links.

The decision by Bluetooth Special Interest Group, based in Bellevue, Washington, the United States, also indicates the increasing interest in 60GHz nets.

The SIG – which itself does not manufacture or sell Bluetooth-enabled products – has asked stakeholders of the WiMedia technology to make their technology available on the same royalty-free basis as Bluetooth. This is to enable the SIG to certify and license UWB systems in the same way the group handles Bluetooth at present.

Mike Foley, chairman of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, said in a newsletter of the SIG that the former members of WiMedia Alliance “can charge royalties in a market of zero units.”

An official of Alereon, a fabless semiconductor company that uses UWB, said the situation was more complex than what Mike Foley suggests, given the fact that there were about 350 members in the WiMedia Alliance at one time.

The members of the WiMedia Alliance, the official of Alereon added, cannot change the IP policy without the signature of every WiMedia member that has contributed to the original specification.