Skip to main content

Bluetooth SIG Picks WiMedia UWB Standard

The Bluetooth SIG announced that it intends to use the WiMedia UWB solution as its high data rate link. This groundbreaking announcement has significant impact, not only upon the Bluetooth playing field, but also the UWB landscape.

In terms of the impact on markets, this announcement appears likely to enable the transition of the Bluetooth brand into a wider variety of end applications, especially those relating to multi-media transfer that have traditionally been out of reach due to the lower bandwidths of Bluetooth 2.0+EDR.

From a UWB perspective, this potentially opens up a vast market for products; ABI Research forecasts over one billion Bluetooth radio shipments per annum by the end of the decade, and in the worst case -- should the UWB PHY be included in only a small percentage -- the market will still represent massive volumes of shipments that are unlikely to be encountered in other UWB implementations in the same time period.

ABI Research Principal Analyst, Wireless Connectivity Stuart Carlaw comments, "From the manufacturers' perspective, this announcement means that Bluetooth vendors will have to develop or purchase robust and viable WiMedia solutions to remain competitive. It poses added design demands for manufacturers and requires a totally different skill set, compared to the comparatively simple Bluetooth design process."

For UWB vendors this decision is the golden nest egg that many of them have been waiting for -- all except Freescale with its DS-UWB solution. The heavily venture-funded UWB community looks ripe for consolidation, merger and acquisition as major players in the Bluetooth market and end equipment markets take advantage of the huge volume proposition of WiMedia as the high data rate Bluetooth solution.

On the downside, this does paint a very bleak picture for Freescale and DS-UWB. Only time will tell if DS-UWB can survive this setback, but the odds are stacked against it.

Popular posts from this blog

Why 2025 Will Redefine Mobile Connectivity

As international travel rebounds to pre-pandemic levels in 2025, the mobile communication roaming market is at an inflection point. Emerging technologies and changing customer preferences are challenging traditional wholesale roaming agreements between mobile network operators (MNOs). The global wholesale roaming market is projected to more than double, from $9 billion in 2024 to $20 billion by 2028. This surge will be fueled by the expanding deployment of 5G Standalone (SA) technology, which enables real-time roaming connections and activity monitoring. But beneath this headline figure lies a complex landscape of regional variations and technological mobile service disruptions. Global Mobile Roaming Market Development Western Europe dominates inbound roaming connections, largely thanks to its Roam Like at Home (RLAH) initiative, which eliminates roaming charges among member countries.  Meanwhile, the Indian Subcontinent is emerging as a growth hotspot. Between 2024 and 2029, inbou...