Bluetooth 3.0 Red-Lines Transfer Rates

By Joseph Palenchar On May 4 2009 - 6:00am

Next-generation Bluetooth technology, which will accelerate peak transfer speeds to around 24Mbps from around 2Mbps, will be available in consumer products in nine to 12 months, the Bluetooth special interest group (SIG) said in adopting the new spec.

The Bluetooth Core Specification Version 3.0 + High Speed (HS), also called Bluetooth 3.0, will enable bulk synchronization of music libraries between PC and music player or phone, bulk downloads of pictures from a phone to a printer or PC, and speedier transfers of video files from camera or phone to computer or television, the group said. In mobile devices, 3.0 technology will reduce power consumption because enhanced power control is built in, the group added.

Products incorporating Bluetooth 3.0, based on the IEEE 802.11 radio protocol, will be backward-compatible with products incorporating earlier Bluetooth versions.

The 2.1 EDR spec's data rate is actually 3Mbps, but after overhead, actual throughput of user data runs at about 2Mbps, a spokeswoman said.