UK telecoms regulator Ofcom has legalised the use of UWB in the UK from Monday, 13 August.

The announcement comes within weeks of the first UWB devices being certified as conforming to the Wireless USB standard.

The licence exemption means users of UWB won't need a license to operate, assuming it's not fixed to anything outdoors or attached to a car or railway carriage - strangely enough it's okay to attach UWB to a car or carriage as long as it's indoors.

There are power restrictions (pdf) depending on the frequency used, and devices must also ensure "the equipment does not cause or contribute to undue interference to any wireless telegraphy" - which is nicely ambiguous, but reassuring to those who paid real money for spectrum where UWB might now be operating.

By 2010, the hope is to move UWB up beyond 6GHz where there's less chance of interfering with other applications. At that time Ofcom intends to introduce much stricter limits on equipment sold using lower frequencies, in order to encourage migration.

Right now there's not a lot to do with UWB. Wireless USB might remove the need for a printer cable or two, but that's about it. However, it seems likely manufacturers will quickly come up with ways to make use of the available bandwidth now that they're legally allowed to sell devices which do so. ®

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• Home radio networks: One standard to rule them all? (4 August 2008)
• Ofcom moots the 900MHz boot for O2 and Vodafone (20 September 2007)
• Ofcom fails to prevent release of cell locations (13 September 2007)
• USB goes Wireless (24 July 2007)
• Wireless power limit doubled to bridge digital divide (6 June 2007)
• Qualcomm to sink €100m into European SMEs (24 May 2007)
• Ofcom consults on unlicensed radio (12 April 2007)
• Europe beams out UWB roadmap (22 February 2007)
• 3GSM Consumer demand will drive UWB regulation (12 February 2007)
• Bluetooth body picks WiMedia for UWB shift (28 March 2006)