Motorola, Intel team on mobile WiMax

Motorola and Intel are teaming up to accelerate the development and
adoption of a broadband technology called WiMax for mobile devices,
the companies announced Thursday.

The two industry giants have been working side by side on the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 802.16e standard,
which provides specifications for both fixed and wireless broadband
applications.

But now Motorola and Intel, which has been a leader in WiMax
development, plan to collaborate and share testing results and design
information to ensure that the new products they are developing are
interoperable.

Motorola said this agreement in no way binds it to using only Intel
chips in its products. It plans to continue to work with other chip
manufacturers as well.

But getting two market leaders to work together to promote the new
technology is important in creating a market. The 802.11e standard is
expected to be finished within the next month. Even after the standard
is complete, it will take months for companies to make their products
compatible.

The collaboration makes sense, considering that the companies are each
working with cellular carrier Sprint Nextel, which is testing the
WiMax technology in its labs.

Motorola also said on Thursday that it will not develop products using
the 802.16d WiMax specification, which was ratified last year by the
IEEE and only supports fixed point-to-point links. Instead, the
company will put all of its development efforts into products
supporting 802.16e. Equipment built for 802.16e is not compatible with
802.16d.

WiMax is considered a promising next-generation wireless technology
because it supports high data rates and has a long transmission reach.

The technology supports data speeds from 1 megabit per second to
5mbps, and it can be transmitted over a 20-mile radius. This is much
farther than Wi-Fi technology based on 802.11 standards, which
typically transmits signals only up to 50 feet.

WiMax is also believed to be cheaper than comparable cellular
technology because it requires fewer network elements.

Motorola sees WiMax as a key piece of its mobility strategy and plans
to introduce an 802.16e WiMax phone in early 2007.

The company also plans to build a dual-mode phone that supports WiMax
and cellular to allow people to roam in and out of the two networks
for maximum wireless coverage. Motorola already sells a dual-mode
Wi-Fi and cellular phone.

"When you talk about mobility, you need dual-mode and multimode
devices for roaming," said Raghu Rau, senior vice president of global
marketing and strategy for Motorola. "WiMax networks won't be built
overnight.

All the wireless technologies--Wi-Fi, cellular and WiMax--will be
complimentary."
Intel plans to introduce WiMax chips into laptops in 2007 or 2008.

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