Having earlier this year axed its agreement with Nokia to co-produce a 3G HSPDA module for the Centrino platform, in order to go full steam ahead with WiMAX, Intel has hedged its bets and putting 3G back on the mobile menu.
Rather than being built into the Centrino platform, however, this time 3G is optional. Quite literally so, as the company behind the new modules is Belgium’s wireless technology company Option. Intel inked the deal with Option in July this year, five months after it iced the Nokia-Intel partnership, to complement Wi-Fi in its Ultra Mobile Platform for UMPCs and mobile Internet devices.
Optional extra: Option’s tiny 7.2Mbps 3G HSDPA module for UMPCs and notebooks will ship mid-2008
At this week’s IDF, Option demonstrated its tiny HSDPA radio running live video streaming onto a Samsung Q1 Ultra UMPC running Ubuntu. However, Option softare engineer Ulrich Fornefeld told apcmag.com that the tiny module, which is crammed into an LGA package that barely 30mm square, was also available for inclusion in standard notebooks. “We can make this in many form factors – we adapted it into a mini-card in just two hours before IDF, so if (an OEM) wants it then we can make it in whatever form factor they need.”
The module is still a long way from the market, with Fornefeld estimating it would be available to manufacturers ‘around the middle of 2008′. The unit will run at up to 7.2Mbps downlink and 5.7Mpbs uplink, depending on the capability of the local carrier’s network, with fallback all the way through Edge and GPRS to unadorned GSM.
Intel’s focus remains firmly on WiMAX, of course, with WiMAX slated to be part of the platform mix for 2008’s notebook ‘Montevina’ and ultra-mobile ‘Menlow lines. Indeed, after sitting through the keynotes and briefings at Intel’s IDF techfest, you could be forgiven for thinking that in the world of mobile broadband, WiMAX is just about all there is. 3G barely rated a mention, and usually only in the context of speed comparisons where it came off second-best to WiMAX.
Yes, WiMAX is fast enough to truly be called broadband by world standards, and it’s flexible enough to provide the often-missing ‘last mile’ of high-speed Internet to suburbs where ADSL isn’t on the menu. And yes, on top of scores of trials around the world there are commercial services and in some cases (including the US) it’s being rolled out as a nation-wide ‘4G’ wireless broadband network.
But the US-centric perspective overlooks that 3G happens to be the dominant mobile technology around the world and the evolution to HSDPA has been taken up by most 3G countries. Most importantly, 3G has the the infrastructure for which WiMAX is still waiting.