Intel invests in Malaysian mobile broadband provider to advance WiMAX
By Ann Steffora Mutschler, Senior Editor -- 5/19/2008
To accelerate the proliferation of standards-based, high-speed wireless broadband in Southeast Asia, Intel Capital said today that it has invested $15.4 million (50 million Malaysia Ringgits) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based mobile broadband networking provider Green Packet Berhad.
In addition, Intel and Green Packet subsidiary, Packet One Networks (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, said they will work to deploy Malaysia’s first nation-wide 802.16e WiMAX network, which they plan to be commercially available from June.
“Intel is committed to the deployment of WiMAX globally and momentum for WiMAX is strong, with more than 280 fixed and mobile WiMAX trials and commercial deployments in 110 countries. Intel’s investment is aimed at accelerating the proliferation of standards-based, high-speed wireless broadband globally. Packet One’s intention to deploy a commercial WiMAX network represents a significant acceleration of WiMAX momentum in Asia Pacific. Intel looks forward to working with Packet One to bring the benefits of broadband to more Malaysians,” commented Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital and executive VP of Intel.
Michael Lai, CEO of Packet One said Intel’s investement will give Malaysians greater choice in how and where they get connected, either in the home or workplace, or on the move.
Later this year in the US, Intel said it will bring to market an integrated WiMAX/Wi-Fi/module for notebooks based on its Centrino 2 processor technology, and plans to make its optional WiMAX capability available more broadly as WiMAX networks continue to build out around the world.
Intel chairman Craig Barrett spoke in Kuala Lumpur at the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) being held this week during which he announced that Intel Capital and Grameen Trust will form a business venture dedicated to social and economic development, which aims to bring about self-sustaining solutions based on information and communications technology (ICT) to help empower the world's impoverished citizens.
The initiative will be launched in Bangladesh, and is based on the "social business" model created by Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Muhammad Yunus, who founded Grameen Bank in 1976 to promote microfinancing and community development.
“Technology offers the means for scaling up our efforts toward global change and progress. By creating new business models based on ICT, as Intel is doing today with Grameen, we can bring people the tools they need to improve their future,” Barrett said during his speech, who also chairs the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UN GAID).
The Grameen-Intel joint venture combines Intel’s technology and Grameen’s experience in creating economic development and income-generation opportunities at the village level with the new company to use a private sector-based approach to address social and economic problems such as poverty, health care and education in developing countries.
Intel and Grameen said they foresee a number of ICT-based services and entrepreneurship opportunities growing out of such a business model including providing remote villagers with medical attention through Internet connectivity, rural communities being able to order medicine locally instead of having to walk 10 miles to a hospital, and families being notified of monies received from relatives abroad.
In addition, Barrett chaired a meeting of the Steering Committee and Strategy Council for UN GAID in Kuala Lumpur Sunday, during which he stressed that public-private collaborations are pivotal in achieving the world's goals for developing countries in the coming decade, citing the global reach and resources of NGOs as a key way to make inroads on social and economic problems, Intel reported.
As such, Intel has teamed up with NetHope, a collaborative consortium made up of chief information officers, senior program managers and technical experts from 22 of the largest international NGOs, to develop ICT solutions in support of the member NGOs' health care, economic development, and disaster relief programs. The ICT solutions deployed will include the Intel-powered Aid Station PC demonstrated for the first time during Barrett’s keynote, which is a rugged, purpose-built, low-cost technology platform suitable for use in harsh, remote locations.
Bill Brindley CEO of NetHope said the Aid Station PC offers the potential to deliver huge benefits to the people in the developing world, including frontline aid workers.
The Aid Station will be testing in conjunction with Racing the Planet, an organizer of sports events in extreme conditions, to test the Aid Station device during athletic contests in some of the driest, hottest, coldest and windiest locations on Earth.
These international efforts are part of Intel’s World Ahead Program, a $1 billion, 5-year initiative.
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