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Want wireless access? Go to Tokyo

Intel Corp, the world's biggest computer-chip maker, expects the number of cafes, airports and other areas where consumers can get wireless access to the Internet in Japan to double by December.

The number of so-called hotspots will double to 7,000 by the end of the year from about 3,500, Greg Pearson, co-president of Intel's Japan business, said in an interview.

Intel is spending US$300 million globally this year to promote its new Centrino chips that allows notebook users wireless access to the Internet. The company is betting that as users flip open their notebooks and sip their lattes while surfing the Web in cafes around Japan, demand will rise for mobile computers with wireless capabilities.

"You go out in public and you see more people using it," Pearson said, talking on the sidelines of a NASDAQ Institutional Investors conference in Tokyo. "People start asking how do you connect? What do I add to my notebook?."

Intel is teaming with Japanese companies such as Nagoya-based Melco Inc by sending engineers and technicians to test equipment to be sure it works smoothly, Intel Japan spokesman Masatoshi Mizuno said in Tokyo. Melco makes some of the equipment used at hotspots to provide wireless Internet access.

Intel expects that by 2005, 80 percent of notebooks sold will be able to access the Internet without having to plug into fixed access points. Demand for wireless access will help spur global notebook sales by 15 percent this year, said Pearson.

Intel Corp and Jafco Co, a Japanese venture capital company, were among investors last week who injected US$2.1 million into Pionics Co, a developer of lithium batteries.

The batteries, which will reach stores within two years, will hold more electricity than conventional lithium batteries.

The company said it may make similar investments in the future to help make computers more powerful.

"Investment in Pionics is one of us trying to help invest and move along technology that would help mobile computers have longer battery life," Pearson said.
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