Planting itself in the center of Stockholm’s Wireless Valley, Intel Corp. Friday unveiled its Intel
Wireless Competence Center.
The center intends to bring industry leaders together to develop technology
standards, products and services in order to bring the high-bandwidth
wireless Internet market forward.
The think tank will serve as a resource for the company’s global product
groups and its ventures with other wireless Net players. Intel pointed to
the 1998 Bluetooth initiative with Ericsson, Nokia, IBM and Toshiba and the
1996 Mobile Data Initiative as examples of alliances the new center would
promote.
“Intel believes that wireless access will be a major Internet trend over the
next several years,” said Rob Eckelmann, Intel Europe, Middle East and
Africa’s vice president and general manager. “We’re establishing a dedicated
team in the heart of the world’s wireless center to help develop solutions
that operate seamlessly with the existing Internet client, server and
network infrastructure.”
Now an Intel neighbor in the region, Ericsson’s mobile phone division
president Johan Siberg said that his company looks forward to new mutually
beneficial wireless projects.
The center is also a follow-up move to Intel’s (INTC)
recent $1.6 billion acquisition of wireless hardware manufacturer DSP
Communications, Inc., which was approved by US regulatory agencies just
yesterday. Israeli regulators approved the purchase last week.
