# limited distances.

By [123ens](https://paragraph.com/@123ens) · 2022-07-15

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Bluetooth is said to borrow its name from a ninth century Scandinavian king, Harald "Blue tooth" Gormsson, who was known for his blueish-gray dead tooth and also for uniting Denmark and Norway in 958 AD. Early programmers adopted "Bluetooth" as a code name for their wireless tech that connects local devices, and it eventually stuck.

The technology was differentiated from Wi-Fi by being "inherently short range," Harrison said. It's still the case today that the Bluetooth options many consumers are accustomed to in their phones and portable speakers function at lower power and can only connect at limited distances.

Bluetooth signals travel over unlicensed airwaves, which are effectively open to the public for anyone to use, as opposed to privatized airwaves that are controlled by companies like AT&T or Verizon. This may have eased its development and broader adoption, but it came at a cost.

Bluetooth must share and compete with a slew of other products using unlicensed spectrum bands, such as baby monitors, TV remotes, and more. This may generate interference that can disrupt your Bluetooth's effectiveness.

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*Originally published on [123ens](https://paragraph.com/@123ens/limited-distances)*