UWB is designed as a personal-area network for high-speed transfers of data, especially multimedia content, among devices at close range. It has a signaling rate of 480Mb per second (Mbps), with real-world throughput ranging from 50Mbps to 300Mbps, according to the WiMedia Alliance. WiMedia was formed in 2002 to promote adoption of the technology and ensure interoperability among products that use it.

The technology can reduce the clutter of cables and allow fast, easy transfers of large multimedia files among PCs, consumer electronics such as TVs, and handheld devices, according to WiMedia President Stephen Wood.

Although UWB became the foundation of Wireless USB and the Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group) is still studying the technology as the basis of a future specification, it hasn't taken the home or enterprise worlds by storm. The Wireless USB Implementers Forum, which is affiliated with the sponsors of wired USB, lists 114 products or sets of products with Wireless USB, including notebooks from Lenovo and Fujitsu. By comparison, Wi-Fi is available in almost all laptops and an increasing percentage of smartphones.

Wireless USB is still in its infancy as a commercial product, Wood said.

WiMedia has reached agreements to transfer technology to both the Wireless USB Implementers Forum and the Bluetooth SIG, and it will cease operations after it completes those transfers, Wood said.