Qualcomm Knows What It's Talking About On This One

Following the IEEE's suspension of the 802.20 standards process earlier this week after Intel and Motorola alleged some undue influence on the process by Qualcomm, the big Q has fired back in the press by saying that Intel is just trying to stall the process to give WiMax, of which Intel is a major backer, a boost. You've got to trust Qualcomm on this one, really, since they should know, having been the target of a similar complaint from Fujitsu, alleging it was trying to stall WiMax, as well as its own attempts to put up roadblocks to Flarion's Flash-OFDM technology becoming the 802.20 standard -- a position that's miraculously changed since they bought Flarion last year. While Qualcomm is a frequent target of these sorts of complaints, and its aggressive IP stance doesn't help people's perceptions of the company, that's not to say other companies in the space aren't up to similar tricks. The situation's as much of an indictment of the standards process as anything, and until that changes, these hijinks -- and slow progress, if any -- will continue.
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  1. identicon
    alaric, 23 Jun 2006 @ 7:59am

    Intel is scared silly

    and this attempt to protect its non-working mobile 802.16e is weak response to qualcomm's acquisition of FLASH. Qualcomm has other avenues to standardize FLASH and it may still succeed in 802.20. Moreover, Intel's tactics will not endear major carriers and especially not the golden dream carrier in this segment (sprint) who was widely believed to prefer FLASH and hence 802.20 over 802.16e. Intel should really just stop the hype and nonesense and put up an actual working mobile wimax product.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Russ, 23 Jun 2006 @ 7:59am

    Layer 10 incompatibilities

    It's really just a Layer 10 problem. As always, my opinions don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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