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Intel closing WiMAX office marks success of LTE, says Digitimes Research
Joseph Tsai, DIGITIMES, Taipei [Friday 2 July 2010]
Despite Intel saying that the company's WiMAX Program Office has already finished its task of helping the WiMAX industry take off as it reasons for deciding to close down the office, Digitimes Research senior analyst Simon Su has said Intel's action will impact the industry in the long term. Su pointed out that since Taiwan's local WiMAX operators have already established complete networks as well as subscriber bases, while module makers all have technologies to develop related products, Intel's action will not have a significant impact on the current status. However, as the richest investor in WiMAX technology, Intel's action will turn network operators around the world that are still undecided between WiMAX and LTE, into choosing LTE and may also create uncertainty about the development of next-generation WiMAX technologies, Su noted. Su pointed out that Intel's actions are considered unfriendly by Taiwan players, since it did not notify many of its partners that it planned to close down its WiMAX office. This may create distrust between Intel and its partners, and even the Taiwan government in the future, Su warned. However, Su noted that the Intel's moves will unlikely change the overall trend of the networking industry since WiMAX was already seen at a disadvantage against LTE. He noted that WiMAX will still have its users in the future and may have a chance to be migrated into LTE as players are already developing technology to allow the two standards to co-exist.
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