August 19, 2008: Intel in India, Clearwire on track

All eyes are on Intel in India this week as the (still very) WiMAX committed company has held numerous talks with telecom operators in the emerging market and looks to enable the launch of sub $400 laptops in the country over  the next few months. A few weeks ago we commented on speculation that Intel may be pulling back from the helm of the WiMAX movement, but all signs point to this analysis as a bunch of hot air. 

Meanwhile Clearwire assured the industry this week that despite spectrum holding complaints from AT&T, the WiMAX networks merger with Sprint Nextel is on track.

Our weekly WiMAX Watch feature is penned by analysts at PRTM this week: The piece tracks operator strategies for the move from 2G to 3G and beyond. Among the recommendations: Networks like Clearwire need to live up to the promise of ubiquitous coverage and consistent throughput capacity, both indoors and out. To that end, Clearwire and other mobile or broadband operators must address the issue of net neutrality. Significant traffic shaping in upstream or downstream networks will only diminish the WiMAX value proposition and slow consumer adoption.