Intel announced its intent on Wednesday to develop chips to support WiMAX, the wireless broadband solution known as 802.16a.
The long-standing chip company announced its intentions to endorse the standard by developing complimentary standard hardware products in conjunction with Alvarion, a wireless infrastructure provider. Intel representatives explained that the company hopes to bring 802.16a — wireless broadband — to a wider audience at a more affordable price by standardizing the accompanying hardware production.
“Intel has been a leader in establishing WiMAX and getting it to where it is,” said Margaret LaBrecque, president of the WiMAX association and a marketing manager for Intel. “With the new chips, we hope to bring access to people who otherwise cannot get broadband and make it an economically feasible option.”
802.16a is a broadband technology that is complimentary to currently marketed 802.11 WiFi products, which are designed for networking over distances of tens or hundreds of feet. Like 802.11, 802.16a is a wireless technology, but one designed to be used outdoors and over distances of several miles. In proponents minds, this makes it a viable solution to the “last mile” issue — the inability to get service from the main national broadband backbones to individual users due to distance.
For the whole story, check out the ExtremeTech article