Expect the debate over the future of wireless internet connectivity to become a little more heated over the next few days.
Next week is the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where announcements will emphasise the crossover and convergence in this area. Think 3G netbooks and wi-fi phones.
In a preliminary bout, Qualcomm, the leading wireless chipmaker, announced its next-generation Gobi chip on Wednesday, while Intel, the biggest microprocessor maker, revealed forthcoming support from laptop makers for its WiMax chipsets.
Consumers generally associate Wi-Fi with an out-of-sight embedded chip in their laptops, with 3G coming from one of those dongles plugged into a USB port – or, in my case, my Blackberry linked to my laptop with a USB lead to give me connectivity when Wi-Fi is out of reach.
Increasingly though, 3G options are being embedded inside, creating something of a melee on the motherboard with Intel’s Wi-Fi and its next-generation mobile WiMax technology, which promises 3G-like wide-area coverage.
Qualcomm says its second-generation Gobi module supports HSPA or CDMA 2000 EV-DO flavours of 3G, with increased data speeds and enhanced GPS functionality. Gobi2000 should feature in laptops launched in the second half.
Sean Maloney, Intel executive vice president, told a teleconference that Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Panasonic, Samsung and Toshiba were delivering laptops now or in the next few weeks that featured integrated Intel WiMax chips. He expected 100 models to be available by the end of the year.
Intel’s problem is that users may find Gobi-like 3G solutions far more useful than WiMax, given the widespread coverage of 3G and the limited availability of WiMax, particularly in the US.
Mr Maloney reeled off a long list of countries where WiMax was beginning to take root, but could refer only to Clearwire and its Clear service in Portland, Oregon for a US example.
Clearwire has been having problems and last month Intel wrote down by $1bn the value of its investment in the company. Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Clearwire may have to delay its network expansion if its fails to close a $2bn funding gap.
Mr Maloney was noncommittal when asked whether Intel would have to step in with more funding to achieve a national network in the US.
“They’ve got enough money to keep going for quite a while and build out a lot of the network,” he said.
“If you look at the historical build levels of 3G, the current build-out rate for Clearwire is pretty fast. We can come back to whether it needs to be faster or not at some point in the next year or so.”
