No 3G For Santa Rosa

Written by Adam Gosling

Monday, 19 February 2007

In an announcement sure to disappoint amny mobile workers, Intel has announced it has decided not to include 3G GSM connectivity in its up-coming 'Santa Rosa' the latest upgrade to its mobile connectivity platform, Centrino. Intel had initially said ti would work with Nokia to embed 3G connectivity into its Centrino platform for Notebook computers, but something has happened in the past six months and now the company is reportedly saying that the chipsets cost too much and will add to the price of a notebook. This doesn't sound a very convincing reason, and it could be that competition betwen 3G and Intel's favoured WiMax technology may have been behind the final decision. Intel has invested considerable sums in the promotion of WiMax as the next generation wireless broadband choice, but lately GSM and its 3G standard with HSDPA derivative has been attracting a great deal of attention, partly because it is favoured by encumbent GSM operators. The decision to launch Centrino without HSDPA is not a final 'no' to the technology and INtel has left the door open for future inclusion. Operators and users will have to continue relying on datacard peripherals to offer connectivity over and above the standard WiFi flavours. But when the next-generation Centrino Duo platform is launched next quarter, it won't have WiMax either delaying the whole wireless broadband market another quarter probably more. Centrino Duo will include support for 802.11n Draft 2.0, however - a/b/g will also be supported. Related news items First Windows 6 Palm In Australia -12/09/2007 Semi-Rugged With Grunt -05/09/2007 Telstra Offers $3 Million To Get Seniors Hooked on SMS -15/08/2007 True WiMAX Reaches Sydney and Melbourne -31/07/2007 New Compaq Notebooks Offer Mobile Broadband -16/07/2007 Newer news items Unwired Meets Funding Commitments Ensuring WiMAX Network -30/04/2007 Telstra 3G Gets Express Card -24/04/2007 Asia Mobile Market Growing at 24%: Frost -02/04/2007 Vodafone Subsidises Data Hardware -31/03/2007 Ericsson Promises 1Mbps GSM Upgrade -14/03/2007 Older news items Broadcom Could Benefit From Bluetooth Case -04/01/2007 Intel Demo's Mobile WiMAX Chip -07/12/2006 Spin Internet Expands Free Mobile Broadband -07/12/2006 ACMA Hunts For Useful Spectrum -05/12/2006 Municipal Wi-Fi Planned For Sydney -29/11/2006 Tag This Now: