Bluetooth Lacks Bite
Wireless technology is long on promise, short on products at Telecom
99
Andy Dornan, Data Communications
In May 1998, Bluetooth promised easy wireless communication by the end of the millennium. Its
founders envisioned personal area networks that would interface with fridges at home, printers in the
office and mobile phones on the move. But even though more than 1,000 vendors have joined the
Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group) in the past year and a half, almost none of them are
promoting the technology at Telecom 99.
"Most companies don't have anything to show yet," says Nikas Orup, coordinator of short link
technology at Ericsson Mobile Communications (Stockholm), one of the few vendors actually
exhibiting Bluetooth technology. But while Orup's Bluetooth demonstration is drawing crowds, he
admits that Ericsson has no actual plans to sell the mobile phone, digital camera or headset
displayed on its stand here.
Bluetooth is just the latest mobile initiative to disappoint during Telecom 99 this week. Products
equipped with the Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) and the general packet radio service (GPRS)
are either scant or delayed, and software giants battling to build the dominant handheld operating
system could delay the market further.
Just last week, Ericsson unveiled a partnership with AB Electrolux (Stockholm) to connect kitchen
appliances to the Internet via Bluetooth. Unfortunately, the service provider can't yet do the same
with a PC. A close look at the laptop in Ericsson's demonstration reveals a connection based on the
Infrared Data Association (IrDA) technology already built into millions of computers but hardly ever
used. And the Bluetooth interfaces on Ericsson's stand are clunky add-ons for existing gadgets, a
far cry from the one-square-centimeter, one-dollar devices eventually planned.
"The first Bluetooth products will be plug-in accessories," Orup acknowledges, blaming the delays
on the technical difficulties in packing an entire wireless local area network (LAN) device onto a
single chip.
Chips Ahoy
The only company listed in the Telecom 99 Exhibition Catalogue under the "Bluetooth" category is
chipmaker VLSI Technology Inc. (San Jose, Calif.), now a subsidiary of Philips Electronics NV
(Eindhoven, the Netherlands). VLSI has managed to put a transceiver onto an application-specific
integrated circuit (ASIC) but needs a second ASIC to process the Bluetooth protocol stack and
perform strong encryption; the specification calls for 128-bit keys to keep private data from being
intercepted by every device in range.
The two chips also require a third to link them together, and an amplifier. "We will have a single-chip
product shipping in volume by the middle of next year," promises Dirk Braune, business marketing
manager at VLSI.
But making the chips is only the first stage: They still have to be incorporated into products, which
will take longer. VLSI has produced a Bluetooth development kit to aid in this but is having problems
keeping up with demand from would-be users. "There is a long waiting list for the kits," says
Braune.
Alcatel S.A. says it is not demonstrating Bluetooth at Telecom 99 because so many other new
technologies are closer to reality. "Bluetooth will be very important, but it's for the future," says
Laurent Guyot, marketing manager for Alcatel's mobile phones business systems. "The products
will not arrive until 2001." Nokia Oy (Espoo, Finland) says virtually the same thing.
The delays have persuaded some major companies not to wait. For example, last month BT
introduced a "wireless home" initiative involving digital enhanced cordless telecommunications
(DECT) for voice and IEEE 802.11 for data. Vendors had previously said existing systems would
work alongside Bluetooth, but the announcement prompted some to publicly attack them for the first
time. TDK Corp. (Tokyo) issued a press release that described BT's choices as "old and clunky."
When Bluetooth does arrive, it could face further problems. It operates in the unlicensed Industrial,
Scientific and Medical (ISM) band of 2.4 GHz, where it will face stiff interference. The U.S. Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) last month said it was expanding the wavelengths at which
other unlicensed radios can operate, further cutting the spectrum available to Bluetooth. And as
Doron Stern, vice president of marketing at fixed wireless equipment vendor Witcom Ltd. (Yoqneam
Illit, Israel), points out: "Every microwave oven is working in the same frequency."
The microwaves shouldn't pose any danger. "It's much, much lower power than cell phone
radiation," says Philips' Braune.
Rude Radio
But Bluetooth's attempts to overcome the interference problem have prompted criticism from
existing ISM users. "Bluetooth is what we call a rude radio," says Aaron Bennet, vice president of
marketing at BreezeCom Ltd. (Tel Aviv), a vendor of IEEE 802.11 wireless LANs. "It doesn't check if
someone else is already using a frequency. It just starts broadcasting."
It also rapidly cycles between frequencies until it finds one available, interrupting data flow across
the slower-cycling 802.11 networks. But along with other vendors, BreezeCom is resigned to the
new technology replacing the old, and plans a transitional range of products that will support both.
"In two years, Bluetooth will be everywhere," Bennet says.
|
