Bluetooth in Nice : communication between mobiles

At Acropolis, under the aegis of the ETSI of Sophia, 440 engineers from 20 countries have tested for 6 days the interoperability of Bluetooth products they will market.

What is the current situation of Bluetooth, this radio technology which allows to ease the communication between mobiles ? An answer to this question was brought at Nice Acropolis during the sixth “Bluetooth UnPlugFest” which ended on Friday August 24th at the end of the afternoon. The event was dedicated to interoperability tests. In fact, these tests allow to check if the standard is used the same way by all manufacturers and if Bluetooth products can communicate between each other…

A technology which is now perfected

First observation: Bluetooth was popular. Last year, this technologic event, organized by the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) at Sophia Antipolis, had gathered 250 contributors. This year, during 6 days, 440 engineers from 89 companies of twenty countries come to test the interoperability of Bluetooth products they are about to launch on the market.

Second observation: according to contributors, the Bluetooth technology, with its first products marketed at the beginning of 2000, is now perfected. It is the opinion of Mike Wilson from Intel, president of Bluetooth SIG’s UnPlugFest planning Committee (the technical committee). He declared: “Many companies who came with prototypes for the previous tests came this time with complete products”.

It is also the opinion of Thomas Will from Nokia. The technical manager of the committee noticed with satisfaction that “More than one hundred Bluetooth platforms were running at the same time in a limited space, without causing any problems of interference”. That’s a good sign.

The ETSI plans to make more tests of this type

The service of interoperability of the ETSI also plan to organize similar events, which allow to test the new products before they are marketed, for both Bluetooth products and other technologies linked to telecommunications and the Internet.

Philippe Cousin, in charge of the interoperability service at the ETSI, notes that contributors all assert one thing: these events unable them to save lots of money and time for the development of products. These events received the support of the European Commission. This should allow to improve more their efficiency and above all, to ensure a larger opening to smaller companies.