Intel Wins Mobile WiMax Chip Deal With Nokia
Intel said on Wednesday it had won a mobile WiMax chip order from the world's top cellphone maker Nokia, which will use its semiconductors in Internet-focused devices from 2008.
Nokia will roll out the first WiMax-enabled Internet tablets using Intel chips in the first half of 2008, a Nokia spokeswoman told Reuters.
Mobile WiMax, the high-speed wireless standard, is expected to support Internet access at speeds as much as five times faster than typical wireless networks, though it will be slower than the fastest wired services.
Intel has had little success in the mobile phone chip market and ended up selling its cellular chip unit to Marvell last year. Its push behind short-range wireless technology Wi-Fi was a big factor in the widespread adoption of that technology.
Texas Instruments is Nokia's largest chip supplier, and it also uses STMicroelectronics, Broadcom and Infineon as suppliers.
Currently, Nokia is not manufacturing mobile devices using Intel chips.
Intel said the companies were testing interoperability across Intel's forthcoming WiMax silicon "Baxter Peak" for laptops and mobile Internet devices, Nokia WiMax devices and Nokia Siemens Networks' WiMax infrastructure equipment.
Intel, Nokia and NSN have already started testing devices with other device makers' products, using Sprint Nextel's laboratory in Herndon, Virginia, Intel said.