IEEE UWB group throws in the towel

Westlake Village (CA) - The IEEE task group charged with creating an UltraWideband specification has given up trying to fight warring industry consortiums and has voted to disband.

Members of the IEEE 802.15 TG3a voted yesterday to recommend dissolution of the task group, and today voted to withdraw the January 2003 project authorization request (PAR) that initiated the development of high data rate UWB standards.

In response, the two groups responsible for the marginalizing of the IEEE task group’s work - the UWB Forum and WiMedia Alliance - today issued an announcement that said in part "that the industry will continue to grow the Ultra-Wideband (UWB) market".

The groups also threw the IEEE task group a bone by further saying : "As the industry organizations dedicated to productization, we thank all contributing TG3a members and voters for their respective efforts during the past three years. However, we concur that, at this stage in UWB market development, a more prudent course of action is necessary to allow the market to move forward with the commercialization of multiple UWB technologies."

The announcement was not unexpected, given Freescale’s UWB push at this month’s Consumer Electronics Show and the announcement of the first UWB products by Belkin and Gefen [link in CES story] that are slated to begin shipments by the end of March. "Wireless USB" products from the rival WiMedia alliance are expected to be not far behind, perhaps starting shipments around mid-year.

Of course, the "let the marketplace decide" strategy means that consumers will need to be careful in their product selection to avoid being stuck with products that do not operate with each other.