Jan 10, 2005
By: Robert Poe
America's Network Enews

After years of literally unbelievable hype, ultra-wideband wireless technology has made its commercial debut, appearing in products or demos at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week. The technology still doesn't make seeing through walls a snap, as its promoters predicted a few years ago, but it does make it possible to send tens or hundreds of megabits of data per second a few tens of meters. That makes it a good candidate to help out around the house and office, wirelessly connecting all kinds of equipment that formerly would have called for cables. And however it evolves, service providers will have to pay attention.

Ultra-wideband technology, as its name implies, sends low-power signals spread across large portions of spectrum, usually Ghz rather than a few Mhz as in conventional wireless technologies. The physics of such an approach mean that different transmissions even in the same spectrum tend not to interfere with one another, and that they can carry huge amounts of data but not very far, according to Martin Reynolds, a Gartner analyst. The signals' ability to pass with ease through, but also reflect from, quite solid objects was also supposed to lead to through-wall imaging equipment that would be a godsend to police and the military -- but hasn't yet, Reynolds says.

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