Intel goes to the max on WiMax

NO SURPRISES at the big plug Paul Otellini gave for WiMax in his IDF keynote. Intel's aim is to make WiMax as 'ubiquitous' as WiFi, he says. And integrate it into its 5th generation Centrino chips by 2008, of course.

Naturally Intel didn't miss the opportunity to quote Sprint saying its '4G' network using WiMax was going to provide a service which is four times faster than the opposition and one tenth of the cost to roll out.

Otellini claimed that between Sprint and Clearwire, virtually the whole of the USA would be covered by WiMax and that around 100 million people would have access to it.

Intel claims there are at least 200 WiMax trials taking place with 'telecoms operators' around the world. How many are 'national' operators, though?

He even dissed CDMA EVDO in the process as well as predicting that PC Cards compatible with the 802.16e (mobile WiMax) standard would be on sale by Q1 2007.

What was missing from the keynote was a mention of 802.21. An exceedingly boring standard but crucial if operators want to be able to 'hand over' calls from WiFi to 3G or to WiMax. Or between any of the three technologies.

The INQ travelled half way around the world to IDF San Francisco, only to find that the expert on 'mobility' that Intel rolled out was none other than BT's Jean-Marc Frangos.

Anyway, 802.21 is very nearly approved and significantly it should be incorporated into 802.16 (WiMax). µ

L'INQ
That 802.21 thingy