Standards, skills shortages, spectrum, and health worries are a few of the issues holding up the worldwide rollout of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, according to a DTI Global Watch Mission-sponsored report.

The mission visited the US to learn about the progress made in RFID, particularly since supermarket giant Wal-Mart and the Department of Defence mandated use of the technology.

The major issue for European adoption of RFID is considered to be the current requirement set by standards body ETSI that the system will operate using a "listen before talk" protocol. This makes it very difficult to install a multi-reader system as co-ordination of the readers will be very complex. It also prevents the operation of RFID in real-time applications.

Proposals to overcome this problem are being discussed and US firms, which see this as being a barrier to global interoperability, are also involved.

A shortage of technicians with the relevant RF and networking skills, which is "exacerbated by the immaturity of the technology and equipment" is also considered to be an inhibitor to take-up.

But while the US academic community seems to be addressing this issue, the report expressed concerns about the UK’s situation. "It might be argued that science education in the UK is rather less supported, which might be a threat to the long-term support of RFID - a complex technology."

Despite this, according to analyst firm Frost & Sullivan, the European RFID markets for automotive, aerospace and industrial manufacturing generated revenues of $23.7m in 2005 and forecasts this will reach $109.3m in 2012.