Posted on 09/07/2004 7:53:30 PM PDT by El Conservador
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An emerging wireless communications technology called WiMAX, which can blanket entire cities with high-speed Internet connections, will rival DSL and cable as the preferred way to connect homes and businesses to the Internet, Intel Corp. said on Tuesday.
"I think that WiMAX could be to DSL and cable what cellular was to landline (phones) not too long ago," Intel President Paul Otellini said at a technical conference hosted by the Santa Clara, California-based company.
Intel has begun shipping samples of WiMAX chips to customers and has committed to building WiMAX into its Centrino notebook computer chips starting in 2006, Otellini said.
The company stands to profit if customers also back WiMAX, since Intel likely would become a lead supplier.
Intel's embrace of Wi-Fi, another wireless technology with a much smaller range, made wireless connectivity nearly a standard feature in portable PCs. Otellini said WiMAX shares many attributes with Wi-Fi, including low cost, that could make it a runaway hit as well.
Taking heat from Wall Street over continuing product delays and a disappointing revenue forecast, Intel found refuge this week in the company of 5,500 technology developers assembled at the show, called the Intel Developer Forum.
Hardware developers and software writers play a key role in Intel's future. Intel once focused on the narrow goal of building the fastest PC chips at the lowest possible cost, but its future depends more on convincing customers to build its chips into a new wave of consumer electronics devices, cellular phones, and mobile computers.
In addition to the wireless communications capabilities, Intel has promoted an anti-piracy technology called DTCP/IP, which protects content sent over home networks from theft.
Intel pushed to have the technology built into the Windows operating system, and sent "legions" of lawyers to movie studios to convince them to offer films to online services, Otellini said.
With the technology developed and the support received from content owners, Otellini said, Intel now hopes to profit from a new series of devices called "entertainment PCs," which stream movies and music to devices around the home, and have at their core the same Intel microprocessors that power home and business PCs.
Also at the show, Intel matched its rival, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE:AMD - news), in showing off chips that have the power of two computers in a single package. Both companies have plans to introduce their first "dual-core" chips next year.
Separately, Intel said it had hired Eric Kim, the former head of marketing at South Korean technology giant Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), as its new vice president of sales and marketing.
Otellini told reporters the move was intended to bolster Intel's push into supplying chips for consumer electronics.
Free Republic everywhere you go, just by powering on a laptop!!!
My wife won't have it!
Yeah (chuckle) - I'll pass...
which companies are going to make the capital investments to build out yet another wireless data technology?
It means millions more monkeys will be pounding on a keyboard. We shall see if Shakespeare results, or it will become just another way to conveniently get porn. ;)
Don't write it off. My first high speed connection was an early form of WiMAX. AT&T had thier telephone and high speed internet via microwave dish. It worked great! No latency or problems like yo0u get with cable modems. Then AT&T decided it wasn;t profitable enough and bailed out. Sounds like the same think only cellular.
I thought the drawback with WiMax was that you had to sit still - it wouldn't work in a moving car. Maybe they've solved that.
Tinfoil will block this?
Big ditto. I connect at a whopping 33k out in the sticks.
I'm sure it works. I'm just not sure about the security aspect of it. It'll be a long time before I head into wireless.
Isn't DSL available in your area?
Dial up here.....Too many hills and trees for even a TV dish.
Anything to put those cable monopolies and their bribed politicians outta bidnys! You can scream "socialism" all you want but a local township has a city run cable TV and Net access for 1/2 the price of your "free market" monopolies!
Where I live, in a private place, we do not have cable tv. We have to have Direct TV satellite. Their solution for access to the internet is for us to spend $600 for their box, plus $75/month for the priveledge of using their services. We cannot afford these expenses. Freepers, Any ideas?
Um... DSL???
..which companies are going to make the capital investments to build out yet another wireless data technology?..
I don't think this will involve that. The current wireless transmission technologies are GSM and CDMA; one of them will be employed to actually transmit the data through the air. CDMA, most likely, since the only 3G system that really works is CDMA and this is all 3G stuff. The GSM guys are still trying to get their 3G to work right.
No one has to build new cell towers and base stations when the ones already there can transmit data at the necessary speeds.
The reason is simple: it eliminates the VERY expensive last mile connection for broadband that cable and DSL high-speed access needs. It's vastly cheaper to put up a single antenna for WiMax that covers a couple of thousand users instead of hardwiring that last mile connection to every home in the same area.
People say that South Korea, Japan, Sweden and Canada are ahead of us in broadband usage, but they're forgetting that 1) in the case of South Korea and Japan the population density is high enough that return on investment for broadband connections is quite high and 2) the Swedish and Canadian efforts are concentrated on their population centers only.
I expect initially WiMax antennas in the USA will be piggybacked on cellphone antennas now already in wide usage, with additional antennas to be put up in mountainous and rural areas.
I've got you beat. I live out in the middle of Mars and dial up with a 56K modem....and get 28.8 speeds!!!!
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