Ultra-wideband Wireless
Interference

There is some concern that UWB devices will interfere with radio services and GPS operation. Because of this, the U.S. FCC regulation of the commercial use of UWB technology is accompanied by a list of strict standards for use and device compliance.

Groups as diverse as the Air Transport Association of America, Nortel, Nokia, and Qualcomm have lobbied against the proposal to broaden the use of UWB. These groups claim that UWB will interfere with GPS frequencies, as well as other public safety and air safety wireless networks, cellular PCS systems, and some satellite services. At this time, related testing has not been conclusive.

Because the UWB pulses employ the same frequencies as traditional radio services, they can potentially interfere with them. Marconi's spark-gap stations used a great deal of power, because they needed to bridge great distances. In the current regulatory environment, systems like Marconi's would be intolerable, because they would interfere with almost every other radio technology. UWB communications systems operate at power levels so low that they emit less radio energy as a by-product than a laptop computer radiates. For example, a typical 200-microwatt UWB transmitter radiates only 1/3000 of the average energy emitted by a conventional 600-milliwatt cellular phone.

Unlike traditional communications systems, UWB wireless occupies a broad span of frequencies at very low power levels, often below the noise floor of the existing signaling environment, as shown in Figure .

This low-power output also means that UWB range is sharply restricted to distances of 100 m (328 ft) or less, and sometimes as little as 10 m (32.8 ft).