Intel Sets Its Sights on the Last Mile – Sean Maloney, head of Intel’s communications group, looks into the future of broadband wireless.

Intel (INTC) wants to make existing last-mile Internet connections — cable modems and digital subscriber lines — obsolete.

By Matthew Maier

Always on the lookout for new markets for its chips, the Santa Clara, Calif., company is turning its attention toward a family of wireless technologies known as WiMax. Designed to broadcast wireless signals across a wide swath of frequencies, over distances of as much as 30 miles, WiMax can operate as easily in metropolitan areas as it can in rural areas, where it can take the place of prohibitively expensive DSL and cable connections.

WiMax is designed to complement existing wireless networking standards, such as Wi-Fi. Last year Intel spent more than $300 million promoting its Centrino brand of wireless chipsets, which combine a Pentium-class processor with an 802.11 radio. WiMax could eventually help spur demand for the company’s wireless networking equipment. To that end, Intel has been working with wireless equipment manufacturers for the last nine months to perfect silicon built around the WiMax networking standard.

Leading Intel’s wireless efforts is Sean Maloney, head of the recently formed communications group. Last week I spoke with Maloney about the future of wireless networking, the increasing hype surrounding WiMax, and the state of the wireless industry today.

What’s the appeal of WiMax?

Broadband wireless has been on people’s wish lists for a long time. The idea of getting broadband speeds delivered to your home wirelessly is very compelling, for both consumers and carriers. And yet the last-mile problem still exists. Nowadays copper is at its limits, so the industry is working to address the problem. We knew that we needed a high-speed, long-distance solution.

Will WiMax chips eventually replace Wi-Fi in consumer devices?

I don’t think so. By the time WiMax gets to be a big deal, sometime in 2006 or afterward, there will already be hundreds of millions of Wi-Fi clients. It’s a multiradio world, so the trick will be getting them to work well with one another.

Will I eventually be able to roam from my cellular network to a Wi-Fi hotspot to a WiMax network?

Eventually, yes. We live in a multiradio, multispectrum world. But keep in mind there are some incredibly complex technical issues to resolve first. At the moment, we are very cautious. The key word is "humility." We are certainly very comfortable about our ability to get Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to coexist, but being able to switch from a GSM network to Wi-Fi and then to WiMax is something that will take several years. But I don’t know anyone here that doesn’t think we can do it.

Can we expect to see WiMax take off this year?

Very little will happen this year. We won’t have silicon out until late this year or early the following year. While various companies are planning trials, the reality is that it will take a year or so. Right now our main focus is on the engineering side. Because the industry was able to coalesce on a standard so quickly, there’s been growing confidence in and publicity about WiMax’s potential benefits.