Bandwidth Advance Hints at Future Beyond Wi-Fi

ONE barrier that has held back the much-hyped convergence of the computer and consumer electronics industries has been the tangle of wires that is needed to connect the cascade of home video, audio, Internet and game gadgets.

Now the drive to unwire the living room is about to get a push.

In March, the Federal Communications Commission took a significant step toward breaking an industry deadlock over setting a single standard for a new wireless technology called ultrawideband, or UWB.

Many computer and consumer electronics executives think that UWB will become the next big thing in the second half of this decade, a convenient alternative for all the cables that are now used to connect everything from high-definition television monitors to stereo speakers and anything in between. Moreover, some experts think that UWB also has a future as a wireless networking technology that will eventually replace the now ubiquitous Wi-Fi wireless standard.

By JOHN MARKOFF

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/technology/techspecial/04markoff.html?