Bluetooth Story

In 1997 a few major players in the telecommunications industry began discussing a standard for low-power wireless communications. The specification, which came to be known as Bluetooth, was first specified by Ericsson. On May 20, 1999, that specification was formalized by Sony Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba and Nokia, the initial members of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG).

The name Bluetooth is not a description that immediately calls wireless communication to mind. Perhaps that is part of its mystique. Most sources attribute the proposal for the name "Bluetooth" to an unnamed history buff at Intel. The name referred to Danish King Harald Blåtand ("Bluetooth" in English) who united the Scandinavian world under his leadership. Since the purpose of Bluetooth was to unite disparate electronic elements, enabling them to work together, this seemed a fitting, if somewhat obscure, name.

The Bluetooth logo, in keeping with the name, takes the Nordic runes for B and H and blends them together.

The initial versions of Bluetooth-1.0 and 1.0B-were problematic and had trouble establishing interoperability among devices. Many of these problems were ironed out with Bluetooth 1.1, a stable version that is still available. Bluetooth 1.1 also added support for non-encrypted channels. Bluetooth 1.2 features several major improvements, including improved transmission speeds and audio links, as well as better detection and retransmission of corrupted packets.

The state of the art Bluetooth version is now 2.0 which is just beginning to be used.

The purpose of the Bluetooth SIG as established was to develop and promote the Bluetooth standard for a variety of applications. The five founding members-Sony Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Toshiba and Nokia-have been joined by three more "Promoter Members"-Agere, Microsoft, and Motorola-who 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.

But the promoter members are just the beginning. Other companies have joined the Bluetooth SIG as Associate Members. For a fee, these 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. (For a lower fee, Associate Members don't get input, but they do get early access.)

Others have joined as "Adopter Members" who don't pay a fee, but do receive the published specification documents and may use the trademarks.

All told the Bluetooth SIG has grown to over 2,000 members worldwide.