Intel Wants Nationwide WiMAX To Top President Obama's Tech Initiatives
By Tom Foremski - January 8, 2009
Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, wants affordable high speed wireless broadband to top US technology initiatives, said Craig Barrett, Intel chairman at a meeting at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
Intel has made significant investments in WiMAX technology, a wireless high-speed broadband technology that can potentially provide inexpensive Internet access to consumers and businesses over large distances without the need for local wifi antennas.
WiMAX will become integrated into future Intel chipsets in the same way that WiFi technology has become a standard part of its desktop and notebook products. However, there needs to be a substantial WiMAX infrastructure to take advantage of the WiMAX chipsets.
Mr Barrett has provided advice to President Bush on technology initiatives, and he and other industry executives are likely to do the same for President-elect Barack Obama administration, and whoever is appointed to a newly created position of US "Chief Technology Officer (CTO)."
Intel is conducting a survey at CES to gauge support for WiMAX, and other technology initiatives, among US voters. The survey questions include:
How would you rank the following - with 1 being the most important and 3 being the least important - for the Obama Administration’s CTO regarding technology and broadband/Internet?
- Provide incentives to citizens to make fast, affordable, high-quality broadband deployment a reality for all Americans.
- Focus on federal initiatives that expedite the roll-out of wireless broadband technologies across entire cities.
- Advocate open spectrum policies that enable mobile carriers and manufacturers to make market-driven agreements to deploy next-generation wireless broadband technologies like WiMAX.
Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner will include the survey results in a letter he is planning to send to President Obama's CTO.
WiMAX could help make Internet access more affordable to larger numbers of people and help bridge a digital divide. It would also help spur sales of computers and servers for Intel, as well as for many other tech companies involved in building a national WiMAX infrastructure.
High-speed wireless Internet would also make it possible for many smaller companies to offer new types of services that require fast connections and help the US catch up with countries that already have a well developed infrastructure of high speed broadband.
(Intel is a sponsor of SVW)
Foremski's Take:
President elect Barack Obama and his advisors have proposed a stimulus package to boost an ailing economy that would invest in infrastructure projects. These would include new bridges, repairing roads, sewer systems, etc. It would make excellent sense to also invest in building a 21st century digital infrastructure.
In the same way that the US economy was helped by the building of a nationwide road and rail network, similar benefits can be realized from a nationwide high-speed digital network.
The US has fallen far behind other countries in terms of broadband speeds and availability. In Greece and Estonia, Internet access has been designated a basic human right and the government has a responsibility to ensure all its citizens have access to this resource.
While the US is unlikely to amend its constitution, a national grid of affordable digital highways, will be just as important as roads and railroads to the health of an economy. For example, inexpensive high speed connections would make it easier to implement distance learning programs, and telecommuting. This would save on travel and fuel costs and be beneficial to the environment. And there would be certainly be plenty of new types of applications and services developed on top of such a platform resulting in new jobs and new markets. A lot of SIlicon Valley companies have business models that rely on customers having easy and affordable Internet access.
WiMAX is one of the technologies that can make this possible and help break the duopoly control of the telcos and cable operators on consumer Internet access. More competition and faster Internet connections will contribute to a strong digital economy.
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Comments (2)
You got close to the real need with your rail and highway analogy.
What Barrett is proposing is the same old song and dance known as the Digital Cities initiative. What we really need is DIGITAL HIGHWAYS. We need to roll out WiMax to the interstate system and enable information to feed truckers, EMT's and other public service folks with realtime data. Consumers will benefit from having up to date road information, access to road services like hotel availability (for example when you are stuck in a blizzard on I-80) and other services, and a variety of other businesses that would spring up around such offerings.
Any major highway infrastructure program should include Mobile WiMax IMHO. Intel will sell a boat load of processors for the servers that feed such a network, the devices in cars and trucks that receive the signals (detachable MIDs for example), and a variety of other means. Digital cities is an old idea and simply competes with exisiting broadband offerings already out there.
Posted: January 9, 2009 7:10 AM
All news reports I have heard indicate a stimulus package that would create infrastructure jobs, similar to the WPA and the interstate highway system. One response was that this would create jobs for labor, housing and construction folks but did not address laid off tech, and wall st types who were unlikely to find themselves on the long end of a shovel. A WiMax response on the other hand would provide opportunities for those 3 sectors, if not more, connecting us as proposed and providing a mechanism to develop apps as described that would provide benefits now, with future benefits to be determined by our own creativity.
Posted: January 9, 2009 9:43 AM