Motorola and Intel bet on WiMax
Jul 7, 2006 2:56 PM
Intel and Motorola announced they will invest
$900 million in Clearwire, a wireless Internet service provider, in hopes of
speeding development of its high-speed, wide-range WiMax networking technology.
Clearwire is backing WiMax, a competitor to a networking technology from
QUALCOMM.
WiMax is similar to WiFi networking, but it covers greater distances. A single
WiMax base station could connect hundreds or potentially thousands of customers
to the Internet over distances of many miles.
Intel is hoping that WiMax will have the same success as WiFi, and has already
made a sizable investment in the technology in its own labs, the New York
Times reported. Intel is working to build WiMax ability into the next
version of its Centrino chipset by the end of 2007. It expects WiMax to merge
into WiFi late in the decade.
Clearwire now offers WiMax service in 27 regions around the country, with about
18,000 subscribers in the United States and 11,500 in Belgium and Ireland.
McCaw owns 47 percent of Clearwire's outstanding shares and controls 87 percent
of the voting rights through a holding company.
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