Will WiMedia get the edge on ultrawideband (UWB) by having a fast track to ISO standards approval?: The Ecma International group released a UWB standard based on what's called the WiMedia UWB Common Radio Platform. This version of UWB was formerly under the auspices of the Intel-led Multi-Band OFDM Alliance (MBOA), which merged its physical layer tech into the WiMedia Alliance, formerly focused just on higher-level application and network protocols.

Ecma will get their version of the standard fast-tracked within ISO, which gives it--I believe--a real leg up in the process. Ecma has fast-tracked a number of other major standards in the past. One of the stumbling blocks for UWB has been international regulation, and some regulatory bodies have been in a holding pattern awaiting more standardization on UWB. If the ISO adopts the Ecma standard, that might be a green light in 2006 to finalize approval in many parts of the world based on where I think the regulatory recommendations stand now.

It's possible that Motorola and Freescale, backers of Freescale's original and classic approach to UWB, can stall the project at the ISO standards group. But the ISO has less of the aspects of IEEE consensus building that have led to the stalemate in 802.15.3a over UWB for Personal Area Networks.

Peter Judge has some great reporting on the issue, including a strong reaction from Freescale, over at Techworld. Freescale has the only shipping UWB silicon and owns key basic patents on the space. They've been involved in the long march from idea to production over a long period. They're notably peeved that other firms have radically changed the notion of UWB and that almost all companies in and around the wireless and wired networking space are backing WiMedia. (Not all--just almost all.)