4G wars
Intel must have done something to really upset some senior European bureaucrats, because the bad vibes just keep coming at it from the EU.
The latest diss comes in the form of the EU's announcement that it will invest €18 million in LTE (Long Term Evolution), effectively endorsing it as the EU's 4G mobile technology of choice. Intel is one of the biggest supporters of the primary 4G rival to LTE - WiMAX - both directly and through its stake in Clearwire.
While the dominant mobile technology in Europe is far from guaranteed to occupy similar positions in the Americas or Asia Pacific, this does represent another setback for WiMAX and is another slap in the face from the EU to Intel after the record fine it imposed earlier this year. Intel has previously revealed its sensitivity towards the 4G debate.
"With LTE technologies, Europe's research 'know-how' will continue to set the tone for the development of mobile services and devices around the globe, just as we did in the past decades with the GSM standard," said Viviane Reding, the EU's Commissioner for Telecoms and Media.
"LTE technologies will turn mobile phones into powerful mobile computers. Millions of new users will get ultra high-speed internet access on their portable devices, wherever they are. This will create tremendous opportunities and plenty of space for growing the digital economy."
LTE is expected to provide mobile internet speeds of up to 100 mbps (megabits per second), with LTE advanced promising ten times that. Nokia, the largest handset maker in the world, indicated it favours LTE when Nokia Siemens announced it was going to buy Nortel's LTE assets. So much for that Intel-Nokia alliance then.