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Intel says that the $500 million will be invested over 5 years mostly for WiMax

The availability of WiMax in the United States isn’t looking that great right now with Sprintcutting back its Xohm WiMax service with alarming frequency. Despite the murky outlook for WiMax in the U.S., Intel is betting the technology will be huge not only in the U.S. but in other parts of the world as well.

Intel is investing heavily in WiMax technology in Taiwan with a $500M investment being announced over the next five years. Intel managing director of WiMax program, Lil Mohan, said at a conference, “This investment is largely for WiMax.”

Mohan went on to say that Intel believes WiMax infrastructure will be ready by 2009 or 2010 in Taiwan and that Intel expects WiMax to be commercially deployed in the U.S. in Q2 or Q3 of 2008. The Taiwan government has already announced that it plans to invest $664M over the next five years in WiMax.

Many big technology companies are betting on WiMax as the successor to Wi-Fi thanks to its much greater range of up to 30 miles. Mohan continued, “Japan will probably launch the first (WiMax standard in Asia), since they have already invested lots of money.”

Acer says it is planning on launching laptops with WiMax built-in during the summer of 2008. Whether or not these laptops will be available in the U.S. is unknown at this point, but with at least minimal WiMax service in the U.S. there is some market for Acer in America with WiMax notebooks.

Acer is a big player in the worldwide PC market currently holding the third spot on the top PC makers list.

dailytech.com