INTEL APPEARS TO BE scaling down its interest in Clearwire, the Wimax company it invested in through its VC arm Intel Capital.

Clearwire, which went public last year in one of the few tech IPOs of the calendar, is aiming to scale up the availability of its early-stage Wimax service.

Up until December 27, Intel Capital's President, Arvind Sodhani, was a member of the board there. He has resigned, and the following reason was given for his departure:

"It was prudent that he resign from the Clearwire board to avoid any conflicts of interest that might arise."

As John Cook notes , that sort of language rather makes it sound like Intel has some new plans in the Wimax arena that don't involve its now-grown-up adopted child. Regardless of who he is replaced with, the loss of Sodhani is a clear indication of priorities being placed elsewhere.

Wimax has been the wireless technology that Intel refuses to drop, despite increased competition - and strong adoption - from 3G telephony standards. The standard appears to be a non-starter in the UK, where 3G is already near-ubiquitous, but may have some application across the far-vaster expanses of the US. µ