Patrick Mannion notes in the EE Times that the IEEE 802.15.3a task group is likely to vote this week on whether or not to disband. The result would be an end to the standards battle on ultrawideband that's been raging in the IEEE between the UWB Forum and the WiMedia Alliance -- or an end, at least, to the IEEE part of that battle. The struggle would then simply continue in the marketplace until one group won out over the other.

Still, as Pulse~LINK CTO John Santhoff notes in the EE Times article, "It takes a 75 percent majority to disband -- and we've never been able to get a 75 percent majority on anything."

Given a choice, Santhoff says, he'd rather see the groups agree on a standard than agree to disband. We'll know soon whether either is possible -- in the short term, at least.

UPDATE 1/19: They've agreed to disband. It seems the only thing they could agree on was to continue to disagree.