November 9, 2004
A total of 170 companies in Taiwan have joined together to form an industry association that will promote WiMAX (world interoperability for microwave access) wireless broadband technology. The appointment of Lin Long-song, president and general manager of the Intel Innovation Center in Taiwan, as deputy chairperson of this association has received a great deal of attention due to Intel's leading role in promoting this new wireless broadband technology around the world.
The wireless local area network (WLAN) standard allows broadband Internet access over short distances only, while WiMAX can transmit for up to fifty kilometers. However, Intel executives have said that these two technologies will coexist, rather than WiMAX becoming the sole standard, with WLAN used for last-mile access. Intel has also played a crucial role in the promotion of the WLAN standard.
Taiwan's WiMAX association says its mission is to enhance cooperation between up-, mid- and down-steam enterprises, integrate academic resources, establish a national WiMAX experimental network, and open a WiMAX testing and certification laboratory in Taiwan.
Intel has released WiMAX chips recently and expects products with the 802.16d standard to begin hitting the market as soon as 2005. Intel also foresees the 802.16e chip receiving approval from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in June of 2005.
Intel's plans for WiMAX include releasing WiMAX chips this year, introducing WiMAX customer premises equipment in 2005, offering WiMAX notebook computers in 2006, and bringing the world WiMAX mobile phones in 2007.
(United Daily News)
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