Intel Takes Stake In WiMax Startup
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NEW YORK - Chipmaker Intel today threw more weight behind the developing wireless broadband data standard known as WiMax by taking a stake in Clearwire, a wireless startup led by billionaire Craig McCaw 240699.
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Intel may deliver WiMax technology more quickly to mobile users by including it as an option for ultramobile devices based on the company&#39;s Menlow platform, according to an Intel executive.Intel&#39;s integration of WiMax technology will come in notebooks based on the company&#39;s Montevina platform, an upgrade to the mobile Centrino platform, due out in the second half of 2008. However, it is possible that Intel will also deliver WiMax technology to ultraportables and mobile Internet devices based on the Menlow platform sometime in 2008, said Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager, Intel Mobile Platforms Group.Intel is already developing a WiMax silicon chip codenamed Baxter Peak for mobile devices. Last year, Nokia said it would use Baxter Peak on its WiMax-enabled N-series Internet tablets, expected to ship in 2008.&quot;Baxter Peak is not a &#39;required&#39; part of the Menlow platform,&quot; said Kari Aakre, an Intel spokeswoman. It will be an option similar to how Echo Peak is an option for Centrino notebooks based on the Montevina mobile platform, Aakre said. Echo Peak is a minicard that integrates WiMax and Wi-Fi technology on one chip.The Menlow platform is a set of components, including the low-power Silverthorne processor and Poulsbo chipset, that run ultramobile devices. Intel didn&#39;t release further details on the platform.Adoption of WiMax is expected to take off in 2009, and Intel wants to deliver WiMax clients quicker to boost adoption of the technology, Eden said. Intel is trying to move in parallel with wireless carriers, which expect WiMax-enabled mobile devices to hit the market as the networks are established.&quot;When you&#39;re trying to create a market, you always start at the infant stages,&quot; Eden said.Intel is already testing WiMax, including in Japan and Russia.&#160;A consortium including Intel and Japanese telecom company KDDI will receive one of two WiMax licenses to be awarded by the Japanese government. Intel is assisting Russian company Comstar UTS in building a nationwide WiMax-based network.Menlow-based devices will ship in the first half of 2008. Intel also said that it will display ultramobile PCs based on Menlow architecture from vendors including Asus, BenQ, and Lenovo at the Consumer Electronics Show at Las Vegas this week. The Menlow platform,&#160;announced at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing in April, will be followed in 2009 by the Moorestown platform, which Intel detailed in September.The company is also developing Diamondville, an ultramobile processor bearing features similar to the Silverthorne processor.Though WiMax has availability and power consumption issues, Intel is trying to get carriers building networks to establish WiMax as a standard, said Dean McCarron, founder and principal at analyst firm Mercury Research.&quot;Intel wants to make sure that there is a readily available platform that can use WiMax and that it&#39;s worth the while of wireless providers to support WiMax,&quot; McCarron said.If Intel can tackle the power-consumption issues and provide wide-area network access through its products, adoption of the technology may increase, McCarron said.
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Small beginnings, big future Comment It became obvious this week that although Alcatel is starting small in WiMAX, compared to say the Sprint contract for Motorola, it is still actively looking to build a head of steam.â¦
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SAN FRANCISCO: At virtually every turn, Intel Corp executives are heaping praise on an emerging, long-range wireless technology known as WiMAX, which can blanket entire cities with high-speed Internet access.
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Underlining its WiMAX ambitions, world number one chipmaker Intel has disclosed technical details of its upcoming wireless broadband chip.
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Intel Corp. expects its first-generation WiMax chips to spawn devices for wireless broadband end-users that cost less than $200 and won&#39;t require a visit
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Intel is hoping its investments in WiMax and Clearwire will ultimately pay off. The more demand for wireless computers, the more demand for Intel&#39;s microprocessors.
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In a victory for Intel, the U.N. telecommunications agency in Geneva gave the upstart technology called WiMax a vote of approval on Thursday.
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BUSAN, South Korea - Intel Corp. has taken another baby step on its roadmap for broadband wireless chips, saying Tuesday (Sept. 7) that it is sampling its WiMAX chip to &quot;strategic partners&quot; in preparation for a wide-scale rollout in 2005.
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(InfoWorld) - Sprint Nextel plans to cooperate with enterprises on the rollout of its WiMax mobile broadband network, letting the customers install and own short-range base stations in their buildings with automatic roaming onto the carrier's WiMax network outside. Enterprises will be a big market for the WiMax service, said Atish Gude, senior vice president of mobile broadband operations at Sprint, in an interview Wednesday at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. The service, planned for a national rollout next year under the Xohm brand name, is designed to deliver Internet access at megabits per second on a standards-based technology that has been heavily promoted by Intel. For enterprises, it will be similar to Wi-Fi, only more secure and with easy roaming onto a carrier network that spans whole metropolitan areas, Gude said. Sprint has sent out an RFP (request for proposals) for WiMax femtocells, or miniature base stations meant to serve a home or other small area, Gude confirmed. He expects large enterprises to buy and deploy femtocells for consistent coverage across their offices and campuses, maintaining control over them as they do with current Wi-Fi networks. Sprint will work with enterprises and building owners to provide roaming onto the carrier network from WiMax femtocells or, in some cases, indoor Wi-Fi networks, he said. The small cells won't be needed in homes because the main network will be able to deliver good in-home coverage by itself, according to Gude. Earlier this week, Sprint started selling femtocells for its CDMA (Code-Division Multiple Access) phone network in a trial rollout aimed at homes. The carrier and its partner, wireless broadband company Clearwire, will run Xohm on licensed spectrum but plan a business model far different from that of 3G mobile data offerings. Customers will be able to use Xohm for any type of application on the Internet, and client devices will be sold at retail stores without the subsidies mobile operators typically provide for phones. The technology could be included in a wide range of devices including handhelds, cameras, and even cars, the companies said. WiMax will go into future notebooks through Intel's Echo Peak chipset, a module for the company's next-generation Montevina platform for notebooks, which Intel announced Wednesday. Lenovo, Toshiba, Acer, and other manufacturers have said they will include WiMax in notebooks in 2008, according to Intel. Montevina notebooks are to hit the market in May. Although WiMax devices will be up against 3G products that are subsidized by carriers, the ability to buy the device separately from the service will be a real advantage, Insight64 analyst Nathan Brookwood said. Consumers don't like having to sign up for a two-year mobile plan as they typically do in the U.S. before they even know whether the carrier's service works in their homes. And notebooks, for example, sell without subsidies today, he pointed out. Xohm will be sold in a variety of ways, including monthly subscriptions, short on-the-spot purchases and "try-and-buy" offers with a period of free service, the companies said. They haven't disclosed pricing. Together, Sprint and Clearwire plan to reach 100 million U.S. residents next year, in about 30 markets including some small cities. Sprint plans to have trials in place in Chicago and the Baltimore-Washington, D.C., area by the end of this year. Clearwire already has a pre-standard network with about 300,000 customers across the country and plans to deploy standard mobile WiMax in the Portland, Oregon, area in the first half of next year. It is running a trial there now.
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Intel has started testing its WiMax chip, dubbed &quot;Rosedale.&quot; The chip manufacturer is shipping test versions of the chip to equipment manufacturers and is involved in trials with carriers.
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A standards group has begun work on a 1-Gigabit-per-second version of WiMax that could replace both cellular and WiMax.
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SAN FRANCISCO--Intel and cell phone pioneer Craig McCaw&#39;s latest company, Clearwire, plan to develop and install high-speed networks based on broadband technology commonly referred to as WiMax.
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(InfoWorld) - Clearwire shares soared after the WiMax service provider's IPO on Thursday, though later in the day they settled around their initial price. The successful IPO, which raised about $600 million, may be a good sign for the emerging wireless broadband technology the company uses to provide Internet access to more than 200,000 U.S. customers. The company, backed by Intel and Motorola, serves 35 U.S. metropolitan markets. WiMax has a longer range than Wi-Fi and can deliver higher speeds depending on how bandwidth is allocated. Because it's based on standards, WiMax could become a widely deployed technology that's inexpensive to build into portable devices. Sprint Nextel plans to use the technology as a complement to its cellular network beginning later this year. Clearwire's underwriters sold 24 million shares at a price of $25 per share in the IPO. On Thursday, the stock opened at $27.25 per share, though later in the day it settled around the $25 level. The Kirkland, Washington, company was founded in 2003 by mobile pioneer Craig McCaw, who started McCaw Cellular in the 1990s and later sold it to AT&T Wireless. Clearwire filed for an IPO last year but withdrew the filing in July after receiving $600 million in funding from Intel Capital. Motorola participated in the same round of funding, which totaled $900 million, and in the process acquired NextNet Wireless, Clearwire's hardware subsidiary. Part of Clearwire's value comes from its spectrum licenses. Unlike Wi-Fi, WiMax is expected in many cases to be deployed over licensed frequencies. Sprint Nextel holds about 85 percent of the licenses across the country for spectrum in a valuable band around 2.5GHz that can be used for WiMax. The carrier, third-largest in the U.S., has said it expects to reach as many as 100 million people with WiMax by the end of next year.
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SAN FRANCISCO -- At virtually every turn, Intel Corp. executives are heaping praise on an emerging long-range wireless technology known as WiMAX, which can blanket entire cities with high-speed Internet access.
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The networking firm's planned WiMax business is first-time broadband for the developing world, executives say.
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Intel and cellular phone billionaire Craig McCaw have joined forces to deliver a new high-speed wireless Internet service.