Intel+Sprint = WiMax

From an article in the NYTimes (posted here in case you don't have a subscription)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/09/te...gewanted=print



August 9, 2006

Sprint Will Build an Intel-Backed Network



By JOHN MARKOFF and KEN BELSON

Intel won a major victory yesterday in its decade-long campaign to create a mobile Internet based on an array of new data services.



Sprint Nextel, the nation?s third-largest cellular carrier with 51.7 million subscribers, said it would use WiMax, a technology promoted by Intel, in building a high-speed wireless data network with connection speeds about five times those currently available.



Sprint said it would spend up to $3 billion over two years on the network, which will be able to support new mobile services like full-motion video and interactive gambling when it goes into operation in 2008.



?This will be Wi-Fi on the go,? Gary D. Forsee, Sprint?s chief executive, said at a Manhattan news conference, referring to the wireless technology that offers speeds like broadband but is available only to people sitting near stationary antennas. Sprint?s WiMax network, by contrast, will allow users to gain access to the Internet while they are in motion.



Though Sprint was at the center of yesterday?s announcement, the deal was part of an intense campaign by Intel to combat a series of patents held by Qualcomm, the company that has been a leading standard-setter in mobile technologies.



?This is definitely a big victory for Intel and all the others on the WiMax side,? said Charles Golvin, a wireless analyst at Forrester Research. ?To get Sprint to commit gives tremendous credibility to WiMax.?



Intel wants to use WiMax to build on the success of its Centrino chip, which is included in many laptop computers to allow users to log on to the Internet at Wi-Fi hot spots.



More broadly, Intel has long wanted to create a global wireless network that mirrors today?s land-based Internet, in which dozens of competitors build equipment to support a single open standard. Cellular networks have traditionally been less open than the Internet ? that is, they have operated on several incompatible systems ? though cellular carriers like Sprint are starting to move toward the more open Internet standard.



As a result, Mr. Forsee said, prices for WiMax equipment will fall more quickly, since manufacturers will be able to get access to the technology more cheaply. That, in turn, will help Sprint cut prices quickly to spur demand. Sprint says it expects to reach a third of the country?s population with its new network by the end of 2008.



Companies including Motorola and Samsung will manufacture the network infrastructure equipment that Sprint will purchase, and Intel will sell wireless chips for handsets and other devices that will support the WiMax standard.



Sprint?s WiMax gambit could put pressure on competitors like Cingular and Verizon Wireless, and on equipment makers, to move toward more open standards and what the industry refers to as ?network neutrality,? a network design in which all types of data traffic are treated equally by the network operators.



?It does have the prospect of being an alternative route into the home,? said Jonathan Atkin, a telecommunications analyst at RBC Capital Markets.



In many ways, Sprint has positioned itself as a substitute to the Bell companies, which own Cingular and Verizon Wireless and have alarmed technology companies and consumer advocates who say they control too many of the nation?s networks.



Sprint provides Internet phone services to cable companies, who are now competing head to head with the regional Bells. It is also working with Comcast, Time Warner and other cable providers to develop wireless devices that dovetail with their video and phone services. Mr. Forsee said those cable companies would be able to gain access to Sprint?s WiMax network.



Intel executives have long backed WiMax as an alternative to wired cable modem and D.S.L. broadband networks. Until now, the technology has been used mostly in underserved rural markets and by companies that can afford high-capacity data connections. Intel has also made progress in South Korea, which is using a version of WiMax called WiBro, and in developing countries like Brazil and Pakistan.



Intel?s No. 2 executive, Sean Maloney, who until recently ran the company?s wireless businesses, said in an interview last month that WiMax had important performance advantages over Qualcomm?s EV-DO wireless data technology, now used by Sprint and Verizon Wireless.



Yesterday, a Qualcomm executive acknowledged that in theory WiMax has had an advantage in one aspect of wireless network performance, known as latency, which determines the actual speed at which data flows over a network.



But he said that that advantage would disappear in a future version of EV-DO technology.



?We always support innovation and competition,? said the executive, Jeffrey K. Belk, senior vice president for marketing. ?This announcement raised more questions about mobile WiMax than it answered.?



He said Qualcomm thought that the current generation of mobile broadband wireless technology had an element of ubiquity and that remained a significant advantage.