China's "SparkLink" Enters the Arena: Finally, Someone Is Rewriting the Rules of Bluetooth and Wi-Fi

Recently, the Zhengjie Bureau concluded its trip to the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026. After returning to China, a subtly observed insight lingered in our minds.

At the booths of Chinese exhibitors, not only smartphones, base station equipment, or consumer electronic products were displayed, but also more profound technological standards and communication protocols.

Among them is a short - range wireless communication technology called "NearLink" (StarFlash), which, with performance indicators surpassing traditional Bluetooth and Wi - Fi technologies, has attracted the attention of global telecommunications providers, automobile manufacturers, and industrial enterprises.

With a latency of 0.3 milliseconds and a reliability of 99.999%. In the vicinity, the information of hundreds of electronic name cards is synchronously updated, and the whole process is as natural as a breath.

This system does not use a wireless protocol dominated by Europe or the United States but is completely based on China's independent development.

Today, we are used to being surrounded by various Western - dominated wireless transmission technologies: Bluetooth, Wi - Fi, WLAN. They all work well. But why does China still develop "NearLink"?

This trip to Barcelona allowed us to recognize more technological backgrounds.

01 The "Backup Plan" Challenged by a List

Every legend has a painful beginning. The beginning of NearLink was May 15, 2019.

On this day, the U.S. Department of Commerce included Huawei in the "Entity List" for the first time. In the following days, further events kept many Chinese communication technicians awake at night - the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, the Wi - Fi Alliance, the SD Association, the USB Implementers Forum... These international organizations, which once advocated "Technology knows no borders", successively agreed on a decision:

Huawei's membership was suspended.

The name disappeared from the official website, and the technology license was unilaterally terminated. However, in the following days, Huawei's membership was restored by these associations.

"Excluded in the morning, readmitted in the evening." Although this seemingly alleviated the conflict, it also put many Chinese communication technology companies, especially Huawei, in fear:

A "pass" given by others can be taken back at any time. What if it happens again?

Precisely in this fear, a "backup plan" that was originally lying in the laboratory was brought into the spotlight and finally named with a romantic name - NearLink.

Traditional short - range wireless communication technologies were developed in the 1990s to connect computers, mobile phones, and headphones.

But today, they are becoming increasingly insufficient: In autonomous driving, microsecond - level reactions are required; factory robots need precise synchronization, and in smart home automation, hundreds of devices can be connected.

Therefore, Huawei started a new project early on: A short - range wireless communication protocol should be developed that is oriented towards the future from the start, with extremely high speed, minimal latency, a large number of connections, and strong interference resistance.

Naturally, it was only a "technological backup", a "Plan B" for emergencies.

At that time, the world did not yet accept Chinese communication standards, and there were no opportunities for the commercialization of relevant technologies. Only after the blockade was NearLink, the former "reserve player", brought into the spotlight.

Without elaborate technology presentations and long - term market awareness campaigns, the NearLink Alliance was founded in September 2020 under the leadership of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Huawei, ZTE, China Mobile, China Electronics Technology Group Corporation, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Lenovo, Changan, Gree, Midea... A long list that includes almost half of China's ICT and manufacturing sectors.

The chairman of the alliance is Zhang Xiaogang, the former president of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the director of the expert committee is Wu Hequan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

They reached a serious consensus:

China must define its own rules.

02 "Revenge" with Extreme Performance

If NearLink were just a "copy" of Bluetooth or Wi - Fi, this story would be boring.

The goal of NearLink is to "surpass" existing technologies.

Traditional wireless technologies are like a road, and devices are like vehicles that have to compete for access, which can lead to traffic jams and collisions.

The traditional upgrade path is to widen the channels. From Bluetooth 4.2 to 5.2, from Wi - Fi 5 to Wi - Fi 7 - the upgrade approach is to widen the road and turn it into a highway.

Then the question arises: Can there also be traffic jams on a highway?

The design concept of NearLink is to build an "intelligent traffic intersection". It introduces the Polar - Code technology from 5G and a central scheduling architecture. A "traffic control center" uniformly guides the movement of each device, fundamentally avoiding conflicts.

And this architecture also brings almost "terrifying" performance indicators:

First, the extremely low latency: The one - way latency of the NearLink SLB (Basic Input Technology) mode can drop to 20 microseconds, which is one - third of the traditional Bluetooth latency and one - tenth of the Wi - Fi latency.

This means that the human mind can no longer perceive the latency between sending a command and its execution.

Second, the extremely high reliability: The transmission reliability is 99.999%, and the interference resistance is 7 dB stronger than traditional technologies. Even in an industrial workshop with noisy motors and a complex electromagnetic environment, the signal can be as stable as an optical fiber cable.

In addition, it supports the mass competition of signals: It supports a maximum of 4,096 devices that can act in the network simultaneously (SLB mode), which is more than ten times the connection capability of Bluetooth. This is sufficient to support the real - time synchronization of all sensors and robots in many smart factories.

More importantly, the power consumption: The power consumption is only 60% of that of Bluetooth, and the receiving sensitivity is improved by about 7 dB at the same power.

What are the advantages? Your headphones can play music for a few more hours, and your wireless mouse can be used for a few weeks without charging.

These are not theoretical parameters but are supported by evidence.

In the smart factory jointly developed by Huawei and Haier, the NearLink technology has successfully achieved millisecond - level synchronization of 100 devices and improved the efficiency of the entire production line by 20%. In Huawei's pilot factory in Songshanhu, the NearLink gateway has also enabled the wireless synchronization of more than 100 robotic arms, replaced the traditional CAN - Bus, reduced production costs by 80%, and increased productivity by 25%.

In the smart port facility in Tianjin, the NearLink technology is also used for the wireless transmission of ultra - HD videos from crane equipment to replace the existing cables that are easily damaged due to frequent mechanical movements and enable fast and stable wireless video monitoring.

In the currently most - watched area of smart cars, the experience with traditional Bluetooth car keys (the driver has to wait for the reaction next to the car) is highly criticized. However, NearLink has improved the positioning accuracy of the wireless car key to decimeter - level accuracy through an algorithm that combines "phase - difference measurement" and the "time - of - flight" method and enabled contactless opening and closing of the vehicle.

Currently, several leading automobile manufacturers such as BYD and Changan Avita plan to integrate the NearLink technology into vehicle systems and keyless entry.

In the consumer market, the substitution by Chinese standards is even more obvious. The audio latency of TWS (True Wireless Stereo) headphones has been a problem with Bluetooth technology for years, and it is normal for the game sound and the picture to be out of sync.

The NearLink audio system has reduced the overall latency from 150 - 200 milliseconds in Bluetooth to less than 20 milliseconds, which is no longer perceptible to the human ear.

The Chinese standard is not a war reserve but a strategic weapon. The story of the substitution of Chinese products by NearLink is based on hard performance.

03 From 80 to 1,200

Naturally, the technological breakthrough is only the first step.

For the technology to be noticed is the key to commercialization and standard - setting.

Bluetooth and Wi - Fi have been established worldwide for over twenty years and have created a "sun - never - sets empire" with hundreds of billions of devices that penetrates every corner of the world.

Why should NearLink, as a fresh challenger, manage to convince people to replace their devices and use its technology?

Cooperating to expand the pie is the right approach. Therefore, the alliance was founded.

To make it easier for more companies and communication providers to use NearLink, most devices integrating NearLink are equipped with a "Dual - Mode" function: The NearLink chip supports dual - mode communication between Bluetooth and NearLink. When upgrading the device, only the existing communication module needs to be replaced without changing the entire hardware architecture.

This strategy of "partial progress and joint attack" enables NearLink to be chosen by more companies.

One of the crucial turning points was the integration of HarmonyOS. In August 2023, NearLink was officially integrated into the HarmonyOS ecosystem.

Subsequently, a series of "NearLink - native" products have entered the market: In September 2023, the world's first NearLink end - device, the Huawei M - Pencil (3rd generation), was introduced; the Huawei FreeBuds Pro 3 became the first TWS headphones to support NearLink; NearLink mice, keyboards, game controllers, and other peripheral devices have successively entered the market...

Under the leadership of companies like Huawei, an industrial chain in China that includes chips, modules, end - devices, testing, and certification has gradually formed.

By 2025, the number of members of the NearLink Alliance has exploded from the initial 80 to over 1,200. There are more than 20 commercially available chips, over 200 listed products, and the cumulative chip sales volume has exceeded the 100 - million mark.

Now, the alliance consisting of 1,200 members is looking towards the world.

04 From the Chinese Standard to the Global Standard

On May 29, 2025, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland, issued an announcement: The short - range wireless communication technology NearLink developed by China was officially included in the global wireless access technology standard system.

This means that NearLink has obtained an international official "ID card" and has the foundation for global dissemination and application.

This has also put the Bluetooth and Wi - Fi alliances dominated by Europe and the United States in fear. They have already established solid technological and patent - related barriers, and the entry of NearLink brings them the pressure that their market...