Do all countries use the same low-, high and ultra-high frequencies?
Most countries have assigned the 125 kHz or 134 kHz area of the radio spectrum for low-frequency systems, and 13.56 MHz is used around the world for high-frequency systems. But UHF RFID systems have only been around since the mid-1990s and countries have not agreed on a single area of the UHF spectrum for RFID. Europe uses 868 MHz for UHF and the U.S. uses 915 MHz. Until recently, Japan did not allow any use of the UHF spectrum for RFID, but it is looking to open up the 960MHz area for RFID. Many other devices use the UHF spectrum, so it will take years for all governments to agree on a single UHF band for RFID. Government s also regulate the power of the readers to limit interference with other devices. Some groups, such as the Global Commerce Initiative, are trying to encourage governments to agree on frequencies and output. Tag and reader makers are also trying to develop systems that can work at more than one frequency, to get around the problem.
