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New UWB Group to Demonstrate Technology at the FCC

Ultra wideband firm PulseLink, which recently formed the CWave Alliance, will present its technology to the FCC today (Mon.) at the FCC Lab in Columbia, Md. The demonstration comes amid growing speculation the FCC will grant a waiver request on radio frequency rules to the Intel-Texas Instrument led Multi-band OFDM Alliance (MBOA).

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PulseLink Pres. Bruce Watkins told us Fri. the company’s message at the Commission will be that against the backdrop of the withering fight between the MBOA and Freescale over UWB standards, the Commission must keep in mind that other UWB technologies may develop within the FCC’s rules. The CWave proposal has generated interest at the FCC, with Office of Engineering & Technology deputy Chief Julius Knapp mentioning the coalition last week during remarks to the E-Gov Institute conference.

Watkins said his message to the FCC is simple. “We're enforcing a message that really in our opinion isn’t getting out enough and that is that UWB has multiple implementations and applications,” Watkins said. “We're showing them just one more very promising one… One group or another is not the entire ultra wideband industry.” Watkins said that the difference between the UWB technologies is comparable to the difference between wireless phone technologies.

PulseLink’s technology differs from potential competitors in that it’s aimed mainly at the consumer electronics markets -- in particular to replace video cables with UWB signals over short ranges, Watkins said. PulseLink is promising HDTV speeds at WLAN distances.

“It’s an additional standard, but for an alternate use and application,” Watkins explained. “We don’t want to do wireless USB. The focus inside those groups tends to be more PC-centric. We're CE-centric.”

Watkins said PulseLink generally has supported the FCC’s approach on UWB. “We have seen just too much argument that perhaps by not bending the regulations this way or bending the regulations that way they're stifling the entire industry,” Watkins said. “They put in place a very good, conservative set of regulations. They took a very positive approach that when there was working technology available -- versus the theories 3 years ago -- that they would take a look at modifying the rules. They should be able to do that in their continuing good judgment.”

PulseLink’s offering, still being tested, builds on decades old technology. The company describes it as a “continuous frequency waveform phase shifted to produce RF emissions that are filtered to meet the UWB regulatory mask.” “We are constantly asked if we are a MBOA or DS- UWB technology,” PulseLink founder John Santhoff said in announcing the CWave Group. “We are neither but have held off on public discussions of our CWave technology until now.”

Meanwhile, sources said Fri. indications are the FCC will grant the MBOA request at its meeting Thurs. “I hear it’s a done deal,” one source said. “They're going to get a compromise that effectively is going to let them get part of the regulations altered, but [the compromise] isn’t going to impact their performance at all,” a 2nd source said.