The authority yesterday released planning information on UWB that indicates that the regulator won't be in a position to vet the introduction of UWB in Australia until at least 2004.
The regulator said it was waiting on a task force within the International Telecommunications Union to work through concerns about the technology raised overseas before attempting to establish a standard for using the technology locally. According to the ACA the task group is not expected to complete its work till 2004.
Overseas authorities have struggled to come up with a working regulatory framework for UWB due to concerns that it may interfere with existing users of radio spectrum and create regulatory headaches over compliance with existing rules on spectrum license allocations.
Thus far UWB's use has been primarily restricted to military applications, but civilian technologists have long recognised a range of potential uses for the technology in peaceful applications such as automotive safety, medicine, security and emergency services.
Other UWB proponents believe that the technology could expand bandwidth available for radio applications. Unlike traditional radio technologies that are locked into a frequency to transmit information, UWB sends pulses across a range of frequencies in a binary format meaning that they have less potential to interfere with other devices using the radio spectrum.
In February 2002 the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) created a controversy after approved the commercial use of UWB. The US military had raised concerns that the technology may interfere with its operations.
According to reports issued as late as last month, the US regulators are still struggling to come to grips with the technology. Early in May a US House or Representatives subcommittee on telecommunications was told that there needed to be more investigation to determine the impact of UWB on existing spectrum users.
The ACA claims that there is little demand for UWB in Australia pointing to the international community's failure to come up with a working regulatory scheme for the technology.
