MANHASSET, N.Y. — China is gearing up to grant TV maker Haier a waiver for its ultrawideband (UWB)-enabled TVs by year's end, according a spokesperson for Freescale Semiconductor. In doing so, China will be the only country outside of the U.S. that will allow commercial use of UWB.
The waiver follows an announcement last week at the first Freescale Technology Forum in Orlando, Fla., during which Haier announced that it would be manufacturing UWB-enabled TVs based on Freescale's XS110 UWB chip set — bound for the U.S. and Chinese markets.
Until now, the U.S. is the only country to have defined rules governing UWB emissions. While China is also interested in defining rules, they won't be ready until early 2006 at the earliest, according to Jerry Lynch, director of applications engineering at Freescale Semiconductor's UWB division (Vienna, Va.).
"But Haier wants to sell its [UWB] TVs China before the end of this year, so its working on a waiver-like agreement with the Chinese government," he said. "It's very likely they'll get it."
Lynch would not comment on the status of deals with other Freescale customers in Asia.
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