New Wireless TV Networking Standard

A new wireless technology with enough bandwidth to carry cable television signals from a wall-mounted outlet to a TV anywhere in the home could be on the market as early as next year, an industry group have said.

The Multiband OFDM Alliance, led by Texas Instruments Inc, the world's top maker of microchips for cell phones, said it would publish standards for the technology in May. The group said it expected products with the technology, known as Ultra Wideband, to ship in 2005.

Ultra Wideband operates at a lower power than the wireless local area network standard known as WiFi, but is capable of handling much larger amounts of data, including streaming video.

Jeff Harris, director of business development for General Atomics, said a cable or satellite set-top box, equipped with the technology and connected to a cable outlet, would be able to transmit video to any nearby television equipped to receive Ultra Wideband. General Atomics is a closely held technology company that is a member of the Multiband OFDM Alliance.

Harris said consumers might also be able to transfer images from a digital video camera to a personal computer with the wireless technology.

In corporate offices, Ultra Wideband technology could replace wires in data centers.

Existing wireless technologies such as WiFi and Bluetooth serve similar functions, but cannot handle large files like digital video, Harris said. The Multiband OFDM Alliance includes over 50 members worldwide, including Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. and Finland's Nokia Oyj.

The group said it planned to ship sample silicon chips in the fourth quarter of 2004 and integrated modules in the first quarter of 2005. It expected products using Ultra Wideband technology to come on the market in the second quarter of 2005.