Biting Into Bluetooth

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PCs. Laptops. Cell phones. Pagers. Handhelds. Headsets.

Juggling all the contraptions hanging from your belt, stuffed into your purse, or cluttered on your desktop is no easy feat. And trying to transfer data between them inevitably leads to a snakepit of cables, cords and wires like some kind of space-age Medusa.

But a new technology promises to eliminate the high-wire juggling act. Bluetooth, the much-hyped wireless communications protocol, allows electronic devices to communicate with one another without a single cord getting in the way.

Launched two years ago and planned to hit the market full force in 2001, Bluetooth is being touted as the next big thing in wireless communications. Despite early concerns about security and cost, promoters of the technology promise Bluetooth will be widely available in everything from cell phones to computers to toaster ovens within the next four to five years.

A Bluetooth Who's Who
Bluetooth is the high-tech industry's attempt to create a standard protocol for wireless devices, regardless of manufacturer. It enables digital gadgets such as PCs, laptops, personal digital assistants, pagers, printers and cell phones to transmit data back and forth using short-range, low-frequency radio transmissions.

The unusual name was inspired by Harald Blätand, or Bluetooth, the tenth-century Danish king who unified Denmark and Norway. More than six years in the making, Bluetooth was first conceived by Swedish cell phone maker Ericsson. In 1998, Ericsson joined forces with Intel, IBM, Nokia and Toshiba to establish the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, a consortium of industry leaders in computers, telecommunications and networking promoting Bluetooth technology in the marketplace.

To date, more than 2000 high-tech companies have jumped on the Bluetooth bandwagon, including 3Com, Motorola, Lucent Technologies and Microsoft.

Let There Be Hype
With so many high-tech heavyweights devoting time and money to bringing it up to speed, Bluetooth has been getting a lot of buzz.

About 1.4 billion products will incorporate Bluetooth by 2005, according to Joyce Putscher, director of converging markets and technologies research at Cahners In-Stat Group, a high-tech research firm.

Mobile phones and PC cards and adapters will be the top two markets for Bluetooth in the coming year, said Putscher. And as the technology becomes more widely adapted, Bluetooth will appear as an optional feature in desktop, laptop and handheld computers as well as digital cameras, home networking products and cordless phones, she said.

At the Fall Comdex 2000 show in Las Vegas, Ericsson president Kurt Hellstrom reportedly called Bluetooth "a great booster to the communications industry" and said his company planned to put it in every telephone they make.

Following up on that promise, Ericsson is planning to ship Bluetooth-equipped cell phones with matching headsets by the end of 2000, said Skip Bryan, Ericsson spokesman for Bluetooth development. Toshiba and Motorola already sell Bluetooth PC cards for laptops for about $200 each.

Gaga for Gigahertz: How Bluetooth Works
Bluetooth relies on radio transmissions to connect electronic devices to each other. Each device is made Bluetooth-compatible with a tiny microchip containing a radio transceiver built into the device by the manufacturer. Devices such as desktop PCs and laptops can also be made Bluetooth-compatible using a special PC card purchased separately.

Using the microchips or PC cards, the devices send radio signals over an unlicensed 2.4 gigahertz radio band.

Bluetooth can connect up to eight devices at the same time over a range of up to 33 feet. Because radio waves can travel through just about any obstacle, even walls, the devices do not have to be located in the same room to talk to each other.

That means that you can sit on your sundeck with your laptop and print in your home office without ever having to get up from your chaise lounge. Or you can go wireless in the car. Instead of steering with one hand while fumbling with cell phone-to-headset wires with the other, you can toss a Bluetooth phone on the seat next to you and chat away on a Bluetooth headset.

Bluetooth's networking function is similar to wireless office LAN protocols such as the IEEE 802.11b, or wireless Ethernet, standard (recently renamed WiFi, for Wireless Fidelity). However, Bluetooth's low bandwidth and short transmission range (as compared to WiFi's minimum range of 100 to 150 feet), make it more useful for home rather than office networking. And unlike the infrared connections promoted by some computer makers several years ago, Bluetooth is much more reliable.

Another thing that sets Bluetooth apart is its ability to transfer data automatically. The minute you walk through your front door, for example, you can automatically synchronize your desktop PC's calendar and phone book with the calendar and phone book on a personal digital assistant by stepping within transmission range.

Judy Jetson, Look Out
Bluetooth's wireless networking capacity is certainly convenient. But to hear company officials describe it, Bluetooth has the potential to be far more than just a wireless mini-LAN.

What gets phone company sponsors like Ericsson and Nokia jazzed about Bluetooth is its potential to turn the cell phone into the ultimate universal remote control, linking everything from TVs, DVDs and VCRs to refrigerators, toasters, and even the garage door.

A cell phone with a wireless application protocol Web browser is all it takes. If you are out to dinner in your favorite restaurant and suddenly remember your favorite TV show is on, you can remotely program your Bluetooth VCR at home with a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone with WAP browser, said Bryan. That way, you never have to miss a moment of conversation — or "Ally McBeal."

Likewise, if you go away for the weekend but forgot to turn off the stove or turn on the home alarm system, he said, you can control them remotely with a Bluetooth cell phone with WAP browser. Just punch in a password, scroll through a Web menu of Bluetooth devices in your home, and program away.

Will There Be Buy-In?
Bryan thinks Bluetooth's potential to bring about a truly wireless world could mean "some people may never see a wired highband desktop computer in their lifetime."

“The Internet enabled a whole new use of products, but they've never taken off because of the cable,” he said.

But even if every cell phone manufacturer decides to incorporate the technology into its products, analysts say Bluetooth won't have much bite unless the phones have other Bluetooth-enabled devices to talk to. And that kind of product saturation, they say, is still several years away.

The biggest drawback right now is the high installation cost, which ranges from $20 to $100 per unit, depending on product. To make widespread adoption feasible in lower-end consumer products, said Putscher, the target price must hit $5.

Another question is performance. Interference from other devices sending radio transmissions in the same frequency as Bluetooth could interrupt data transfers, some analysts say. But according to Bryan, Bluetooth's signal "frequency hops" randomly along the entire radio spectrum in order to minimize interference. At 1,600 hops per second, any overlaps would not be noticeable and would not affect Bluetooth's performance in real time, he said.

Security is yet another issue. Because Bluetooth transmits data in an open radio band, some analysts believe it could be vulnerable to viruses as well as digital eavesdropping. But Bryan claims the basic architecture of Bluetooth "lets you be as secure as you need to be." Multiple security layers, including PIN codes, encryption, and digital certificates, should protect it from intruders, he said.

According to Bryan, consumers are more than ready to embrace Bluetooth, which he believes will make the dreams of science fiction a reality.

“This era we're in, I call it a 'science-fiction economy. You think of 'Star Trek,' 'Star Wars,' the James Bond movies. All the gadgets we've seen in those movies we already understand we're supposed to be using. We're ready to accept them. It just makes life easier.”

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