Ultrawideband is go in Europe

THE EU HAS legalised the use of Ultrawideband which provides short-range, high-bandwidth technology with speeds of up to 1Gbps.

As Zdnet notes, use of the technology has been illegal outside the US, but now the EU seems to have changed its mind.

The move has got the enthusiastic backing of the UK's regulator Ofcom which has said that it is delighted because it will allow greater competition between different technologies.

For those who came in late, Ultrawideband uses very low power across bands many gigahertz wide. It makes it possible to reuse frequencies allocated to other users without much interference.

The downside is that it only operates at ranges of up to 10 metres. The other problem is that devices have to be closely monitored to make sure they do not use too much power. If this happens then the frequencies can be swamped.

It is probably for this reason that the EU is only allowing the technology if there are more rigorous rules in place. µ