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Development of WiMax gaining momentum: Intel

Intel Corp said momentum is building for chips that create high-speed wireless Internet networks the size of entire cities, after executives spent more than a year promoting the new design and courting customers.

"It feels like we've got forward momentum and that people are going to deploy this," said Sean Maloney, executive vice president of Santa Clara, California-based Intel's mobility business, in a phone interview on Wednesday.

Intel, the world's biggest computer-chip maker, said development of these so-called WiMax networks is entering a "new phase" as 24 firms in countries from Taiwan to Mexico roll out products. The market for WiMax will reach US$3.5 billion by 2010, according to French telecommunications researcher Idate.

Maloney and Intel chief executive Officer Paul Otellini have touted WiMax and worked to establish globally accepted technical standards for the products. Maloney won a key ally on Oct. 27, when Motorola Inc said it would work to make sure its WiMax products are compatible with Intel's chips.

Intel started shipping customers samples of the chips in September last year. They went on sale in April. The company wants to repeat the success it had with an older standard known as Wi-Fi, which bolstered sales of Centrino chips for laptops.

Wi-Fi networks typically extend a few hundred meters, about the size of a coffee shop or part of an airline terminal. WiMax extends that reach to encompass small metropolitan areas.

The adoption of third-generation, or 3G, cellular networks, after more than a decade in the works, is prompting carriers to look for succeeding technologies, Maloney said.
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