Intel punts mobile WiMax for Africa

By Siyabonga Africa for Intel

Johannesburg, 20 Mar 2009

Intel is keen to roll-out its WiMax-enabled netbooks in Africa.

The chipmaker has sold more than three million WiMax-enabled devices in the EMEA region per quarter since it began its WiMax programme in 2007. It hopes to bring the rest of the continent into this trend.

"These devices will allow us to bridge the gap between those who are connected to the Internet and those who are not," says Intel EMEA director of sales operations J"org Finger. "What we will be introducing are entry-level netbooks through which people can do content consumption, such as surfing the Internet for information and entertainment."

Finger adds that Intel has been in talks with large telcos, such as Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and Telef?nica, to create PC bundles that are already prominent in Western Europe and could be emulated with local service providers in Africa.

"It`s a win-win situation for both the telcos and us because they want to sell a service and we want to connect people to the Internet with our netbooks."

Connecting the last mile

Finger says the biggest impasse to Internet connectivity in Africa is the lag in handing out WiMax spectrum due to legislation.

Intel has already gone into mobile WiMax pilot programmes in Russia. Finger believes Africa is poised to adopt the technology due to the fact the continent is not stuck with the legacy infrastructure which is predominant in Western Europe.

"WiMax is a technology suited for regions with weak infrastructure. You are not reliant on copper cables and thus you can develop your wireless and fibre-optic networks because you are not reliant on this legacy infrastructure."

In 2005, the company announced it had 13 WiMax installations available in Europe, South America and North Asia, and 10 more Intel-sponsored networks were opened later that year. Companies such as Airspan, Alcatel-Lucent and Alvarion helped with the installations.