Intel to support LTE, the rival of Wimax
By siliconindia   |   Monday, 30 August 2010, 23:17 IST   |    2 Comments
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Intel to support LTE, the rival of Wimax
Bangalore: Intel has revealed its plans to support Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology, which is a rival to the Wimax technology that was previously promoted by Intel. Wimax and LTE are similar but competing technology standards that telecom operators can choose between for offering wireless broadband services, reports Lison Joseph of Livemint.com. "Question is, in the long term is LTE much bigger? Possibly yes, quite possibly yes. Whenever LTE makes it to the market, Intel will support LTE," said Tom Kilroy, Intel's global sales and marketing head. Intel manufactures chips that enables computing devices with Wimax, whereas LTE is backed by Qualcomm. "Intel was not 'religious' about Wimax and its research and development (R&D) plans are geared to support LTE if that technology becomes the industry standard," added Kilroy. India, with low Internet and computer penetration levels, offers a huge opportunity for companies such as Intel. "The Indian telecom operators have signed the big checks, they've got the spectrum. These are like tomatoes on the shelf; they tend to rot if you don't make use of them. And you paid for that already," said Intel's Managing Director, Sales and Marketing, South Asia and India head, Sivakumar Ramamurthy. RIL, which bought Infotel after that company won the pan-India spectrum remained silent on Wimax in a statement announcing its entry into telecom space. Analysts tracking the evolution and adoption of these competing technologies appear to have already called the game in favour of LTE in the long run.

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