|
|
WiMax
to compete with DSL: Barrett
Other Topics: WiMAX Mobile,
Intel and Sprint team on WiMAX
May 09, 2005
INTEL chief executive Craig Barrett said that new wireless high-speed
data technologies would be competitive with internet links provided by
cable and phone companies.
Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is pushing WiMAX, which would
provide high speed data over areas as large as a small city, as a way to
spread cheap yet ubiquitous wireless broadband access.
It's hoping to replicate the success it had in popularising the
short-range wireless WiFi standard popular in airports and coffee shops. |
| |
|
|
| |
Mr Barrett said most telephone digital subscriber lines (DSL) and cable
broadband connections were not fast enough.
"Most of us who have DSL or cable at home do not have good broadband but
kind of half-ass broadband, which doesn't really allow for good
streaming video or that kind of stuff," Mr Barret said.
Few home broadband connections today offer higher download speeds than
five megabits per second, and Barrett said good broadband - which would
be capable of delivering high-quality video transmission - should be
able to move at least 10Mbps.
WiMAX, which should be capable of 50 megabits to 100 megabits per
second, is "significantly better than what we typically look at with DSL
and cable," Mr Barrett said.
"I think that will be very competitive with those technologies, and
especially where those technologies aren't built out, in rural areas.
"Will it compete with wired access? Absolutely. Will it be perhaps the
only broadband solution you have in some areas? Absolutely, especially
in rural areas."
With Intel's muscle behind the WiMAX push, some 240 companies have
joined the industry group developing WiMAX standards and equipment.
Sprint and Intel have agreed to cooperate on WiMAX tests.
Intel expects the first commercial trials of WiMAX early next year, with
different variations of the technology for mobile users available for
trials by early 2007.
Intel and others envision WiMAX equipment installed outside homes and
business, linking up with base stations hosted by fixed-line
telecommunications operators. A short-range, Wi-Fi signal, or perhaps an
Ethernet cable, would bring the internet to individual PCs in the home.
|
|
Back to Newsroom
|
| |
|
