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Intel Corp. is jubilant over the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union's decision to include WiMax among the third-generation wireless standards. And given the company's active investment in startups depending on WiMax adoption, Intel Capital managing director Sriram Viswanathan wasn't shy about telling the New York Times that the company did "a pretty substantial amount of lobbying" to win the endorsement. While WiMax is picking up speed in the U.S., there had been some wariness that European adoption of the technology as a standard for more wide-ranging wireless networks than afforded by Wi-Fi technology could be hindered over concerns of interference with other signals on the frequency spectrum. The ITU's decision is expected to spur faster action by member countries to open up spectrum for Wi-Fi. WiMax, and Intel, won a victory over LM Ericcson's competing Long-Term Evolution and QualComm Inc.'s Ultra Mobile Broadband technologies, although the chip company's venture holdings are so broad that it wouldn't have been devastated if the technology had gotten the thumbs down. Not so for many of Intel Capital's portfolio companies, which have staked their future on WiMax and which now see a much brighter future in Europe and even globally. The international standards group's decision comes as a dual win for WiMax this week, alongside a strong endorsement of the technology by Cisco Systems Inc., with its $330 million purchase of Intel portfolio company Navini Networks Inc. - Clifford Carlsen See story from The New York Times See Oct. 23 story from Tech Confidential See June 21 story from TheDeal.com See post from AlwaysOn
Comments
From: Stacey Higginbotham,
Ultra wide band technology is still going strong with several companies introducing products this year that take advantage of the technology. Austin Ventures funded a company called Alereon Inc., which launched a UWB device earlier this year. There are also several other companies in the UWB space such as Wisair Ltd. and Staccato Communications Inc. It is not incorporated into the WiMax standard.
Posted on:
October 25, 2007 1:02 PM
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What has happened to the once promising ultra wide band technology that Austin Ventures several years ago and Intel had invested in? Is it incorporated into WiMax?