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Alcatel and Intel Corp. have announced that both companies have expanded their strategic alliance on WiMAX, entering into a new joint development agreement. Both companies have committed to work closely together to expedite the delivery of end-to-end residential, nomadic and ultimately mobile WiMAX solutions based on the IEEE 802.16e standard. The companies expect to begin field trials in the first half of 2006, with commercial network deployments starting mid-2006.
Under the agreement, the companies will share engineering and customer lab resources to develop, integrate and conduct interoperability testing for Alcatel’s WiMAX network infrastructure solutions and Intel’s next-generation WiMAX client silicon meant for wireless devices. Both companies will also actively cooperate to influence and accelerate the standardisation, development, implementation and the promotion of the IEEE 802.16e standard.
“In the past, the broadband wireless industry has struggled to gain widespread adoption, due in large part to its dependence on incompatible solutions from multiple vendors and the lack of sponsorship from leading silicon and infrastructure suppliers,” commented Michael Thelander, Signals Research Group LLC. “The advent of WiMAX and the strategic relationship between Alcatel and Intel addresses these issues and lays the foundation for broadband wireless to succeed.”