LONDON -- A specification governing the transmission of Bluetooth protocols over ultrawideband radios is now set for about Oct. 2007, the chairman of the Bluetooth group said Monday.

Speaking at an open house for Bluetooth technology sponsored by the Bluetooth SIG here, Mike Foley, the chairman of the SIG, said that the specification is still a year away. Products are now due by the end of 2008, he said.

When Foley and the WiMedia Forum announced the partnership in March, the two sides indicted that the specification would be completed by the first quarter of 2007, with first products due in early 2008.

Foley referred to the standard as "high-speed Bluetooth," and said the technology would be marketed under the Bluetooth name.

As he has done before, Foley referred to Bluetooth as an "umbrella" protocol, capable of controlling a variety of technologies, including Wi-Fi, Near Field Communications, UWB, and low-power Bluetooth derivatives. In a presentation, Foley did not refer to the "Wibree" specification by name; afterward, he said the group still did not know whether it would adopt the technology, or work on its own low-power Bluetooth derivatives.

Foley offered an example of a future Bluetooth phone that could use the NFC technology as a contactless payment method, allowing the user t oview his receipt via Bluetooth. "This is an example of how two technologies, working together, can be better than just one," he said.

By the end of 2006, 600 million unique Bluetooth devices will have been sold, Foley said, giving the technology an installed base of close to a billion units.