Bluetooth vs. 802.11b: The Rivalry That Never Was

Over the last two years, a great deal of discussion has gone on about which consumer wireless internet technology standard will dominate the market – 802.11b (also known as Wi-Fi) or Bluetooth. So now that 2002 is coming to a close, which technology appears to be gaining more ground? It depends on who you are and why you are connecting wirelessly to the internet.

While in London’s Heathrow Airport earlier this year, I saw a demonstration of Bluetooth technology used to access the internet.

The demonstrator simply dialed the number of an ISP using a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone, set it within range of a laptop computer and presto – the laptop was now connected to the internet.

This was fantastic, I thought. No need to search for a WLAN hotspot as is necessary when using Wi-Fi. All that was necessary was a mobile phone and laptop, both Bluetooth-enabled, and an ISP account.

My first question of course was, why are we not using this technology in the U.S.? With Bluetooth will the Europeans once again lead the U.S. in this emerging mobile technology? Not necessarily.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are complementary, rather than competing, technologies. The reason is that each technology serves a different purpose.

Bluetooth was developed as a “cable replacement technology” that would connect numerous types of devices to one another without the need for cables.

Similar to infrared, a user can connect a laptop to a printer or a PDA to a PC wirelessly. Bluetooth technology only requires that the devices be within a 30 foot range, rather than line-of-site as with Infrared-enabled devices.

The downside to using a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone as a modem is the speed at which it transfers data. Bluetooth downloads data at rates between 400 and 800 KB per second.

Bluetooth is best used for synchronizing calendars and email inboxes on a PDA and not for functions requiring heavy data transfer.

In contrast, Wi-Fi technology was developed as a wireless Ethernet technology for high-speed access to corporate networks, intranets and internets. As a result, Wi-Fi provides speeds of up to 11 MB per second, more than 10 times faster than Bluetooth.

It comes as no surprise then that Wi-Fi is the chosen technology for those who need to access large amounts of data such as employees accessing corporate files and applications remotely and general internet surfers.

The idea that Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are complementary technologies is further evidenced by the incorporation of both in a variety of products and applications.

Hewlett Packard has now introduced its iPAQ h5455 PDA with “wireless versatility” which includes both 802.11b and Bluetooth technology.

Federal Express is in the process of implementing Bluetooth technology to enable the courier handsets to transmit data to the terminals in their trucks. At the same time, the company uses 802.11b for wireless corporate LAN access.



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