Bluetooth 3.0 Is Wi-Fi Fast, Arrives On April 21st

As useful as Bluetooth can be, it’s become a little like the serial port of the wireless world: too slow for anything heavy-duty, but too ubiquitous to get rid of. Spec 3.0 should change that.

Making a huge leap forward from Bluetooth’s current transfer speeds, spec 3.0 will have a bandwidth in line with 802.11n Wi-Fi—at least, some of the time. During low bandwidth tasks, like interfacing between a phone and a earpiece or making small file transfers, Bluetooth 3.0 will behave and perform like current technology. When needed, it can switch to a faster mode, in which it creates a sort of ad-hoc Wi-Fi network that actually adheres to 802.11n standards.

Details are all still sparse, but the announcement and probable release date has been set for April 21st, when the Bluetooth Special Interest Group is expected to name hardware manufacturers who are on board with this new standard.