Intel Teams With ArrayComm To Improve WiMAX Antenna Technology

Specifically, Intel said it will work with ArrayComm to make the changes and that it intends to support the vendor's smart antenna technology in its mobile WiMAX client device chipsets.

Intel has been a driving force behind the WiMAX standard and is developing chipsets both WiMAX infrastructure and client-side equipment. Final certification testing for WiMAX equipment based on the 802.16-2004 standard is expected to start within weeks with the equipment starting to appear at the end of this year and early next.

However, the mobile WiMAX standard, 802.16e, has yet to be fully ratified. Intel said that adding better support for smart antenna technology will increase range and produce higher data rates. "As industry momentum continues to build around WiMAX, we are seeing a tremendous amount of innovation happening in many different aspects of the technology," Scott Richardson, general manager of Intel's Broadband Wireless Group, said in a statement. "We are excited to work with ArrayComm to bring their considerable experience to bear on the radio fundamentals of range and network capacity that are so critical to the success of WiMAX."