Cisco snuggles up to Clearwire in Wimax deal

JUST WHEN INTEL needs a friend, Cisco stepped up to the plate again yesterday, announcing it has teamed up with Intel charity case Clearwire to become the main supplier of infrastructure for Clear 4G Wimax across the US.

Cisco also said it would come out with a mobile Wimax device towards the end of 2009 under the Linksys brand, claiming it would be a world first, but Nokia would beg to differ..

Cisco does have some experience with Wimax, having cobbled together a fair few Wimax radio offerings for places far out in the sticks without broadband, which it will continue to do.

"Clearwire's ecosystem of partners, coupled with our all-IP next-generation network, will deliver a true mobile broadband experience," said Ned Hooper, senior vice president of corporate development at Cisco.

Financial terms of the deal, which will see Cisco offloading a ton of Internet infrastructure and devices on Clearwire's doorstep, were not disclosed, but Cisco certainly isn't placing all of its eggs in one basket.

The giant networking company also recently announced that it will be flogging Wimax infrastructure to Russian wireless ISP Scartel, Georgian mobile operator MagtiCom, and AsiaBell's mobile WiMAX service in central Kazakhstan. µ