Intel Office Was Closed for Wimax Program
Intel closed its office located in Taiwan for the Wimax program (Wimax Program Office / WPO). All workers in the office were transferred to some other divisions.
The office was originally built to promote the use of wireless broadband technology that has been competing with cellular wireless technology. With WPO, Intel hopes to spread the benefits obtained with Wimax technology.
Intel also hopes that Wimax will become a cheaper technology that can be accessed by Internet users anywhere and anytime. Wimax technology is believed to have more speed than WiFi, and a wide coverage area.
Unfortunately, the WPO was eventually shut down by Intel. This step caused much speculation, one of which is that the closing is a form of Wimax failure. It is even considered that Intel is giving up to LTE, a wireless broadband technology that has always been competing with Wimax.
However, Intel does not justify such speculation. Intel is still committed to working to ensure Wimax market and raise it.
“The closure was not going to change our focus on Wimax. In fact we would merge the existing team with several related divisions to further enhance the commercialization of WiMAX. We are still committed to WiMAX,” said Intel spokesman in Singapore, Nick Jacobs. Jacobs added that currently there are approximately 500 WiMAX networks in 147 countries around the world to serve the broadband needs of approximately 10 million people.
The entire staff at the WPO will be transferred to several divisions such as Intel’s Mobile Wireless Group, PC Client Group, or the Sales Marketing unit.