UWB Forum technology hits the handset

At the 3GSM World Congress (Cannes, France) last week, Samsung and Freescale demonstrated a handset based on UWB Forum technology. The demo used the UWB (Ultra Wideband) feature to transfer photos from the handset to a PC, and music and contact data from the PC to the phone.

As I discussed in “Another UWB scheme – but in a WLAN flavor,” the UWB Forum camp, especially Freescale, is clearly ahead of the MBOA (Multiband OFDM Alliance) competitors in terms of UWB silicon. Of course, UWB Insider, in commenting on my previous post, claims that the UWB Forum technology doesn’t work. Despite his/her claims, I’ve never witnessed the performance problems described in that comment and I’ve seen multiple demonstrations.

I think it’s also pretty clear that a market leader such as Samsung wouldn’t in any way ally itself with a fundamentally flawed technology. Indeed the company seems quite comfortable with the Freescale silicon. “Ultra-Wideband provides a unique capability for cellular products, offering consumers more value and functionality with their mobile communications,” said Kwan-Soo Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of Research and Development Center, Telecommunication Network Business at Samsung. “Adding Freescale’s UWB to our cell phone for this demonstration, we have created a unique product concept that showcases the possibilities for next generation mobile/cellular products.”

Alas, I as a consumer would much prefer to have 802.11 integrated in the handset. The WLAN (Wireless LAN) technology has far greater range, many people (myself included) already have an 802.11 network at home, and the performance is a match for photo, music, and contact manager data exchange. The carriers, however, aren’t comfortable with 802.11 in a phone because once the WLAN support is there, the handset can use VoIP in 802.11 hot spots and bypass the cellular network.