clipped from: business.guardian.co.uk   

The end for messy TV cables?

Ultra-Wideband (UWB) can be used to send huge amounts of information between electronic devices, making it suitable for connecting items such as digital TV decoders and DVD players to television sets, or digital cameras to computers.

The spider's web of cabling that lurks behind the nation's TV sets could become a thing of the past after telecoms and media regulator Ofcom today freed-up part of the airwaves for a new wireless technology.

It could also be used to wirelessly link satellite dishes or cable TV connections to set-top boxes, doing away with the need for cables to be poked through walls and run around skirting boards. Satellite broadcaster Sky, for instance, is understood to be looking at whether UWB could be integrated into its equipment.

Described by techies as "Bluetooth on steroids", UWB can operate over distances of up to 30 metres.
Japanese electronics manufacturers are already producing modems that use UWB,