Bluetooth SIG

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) is a trade association devoted to the development of Bluetooth standards, promoting Bluetooth development, and licensing Bluetooth's technologies and trademark. The Bluetooth SIG has over 2,000 member companies worldwide.

Headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, the Bluetooth SIG is currently a privately held concern. It is not publicly traded. Its executive director is Michael Foley, Ph.D., and its Marketing Director is Anders Edlundand. It also includes a small staff to oversee Marketing, Engineering, and Operations.

Membership in the Bluetooth SIG comes in three levels-Promoter Members, Associate Members, and Adopter Members.

Promoter Members

The promoter members include Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia, and Toshiba, the five founding companies. In addition Agere, Microsoft, and Motorola are promoter members. Promoter members are fully engaged in developing and promoting Bluetooth technology. Each promoter member has one vote on the Board of Directors and the Qualification Review Board. The latter board oversees the process by which new members are qualified to become part of the Bluetooth SIG.

Associate Members

Members may become Associate Members by paying an annual fee. In 2005, the full fee was $7,500 for companies with less than $100 million in annual revenue and $35,000 for those above that cutoff. Associate members are granted early access to draft specifications and work with other Associate and Promoter members to enhance existing specifications. They review specifications before publication and vote in the working groups and committees.

Some associate members pay a discounted fee. They do not participate in these working groups, but they still have early access to draft specifications.

Adopter Members

Any company may become an adopter member of the Bluetooth SIG without paying a fee. Adopter member receive the published specification documents and may use the trademarks. They do not participate in the standardization processes.