Innove teams up with Intel for WiMAX test in Cavite facility

Intel, the world’s leading computer chipmaker, and Innove Communications, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Globe Telecom, are collaborating in conducting trial and testing of the WiMAX technology for Intel’s assembly and test facility in Cavite.

The trial deployment is expected to spur widespread access and adoption of innovative services such as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) and online gaming, and facilitate the availability of rich digital content and services that help improve lives and how businesses operate.

The collaboration is part of the Asian Broadband Campaign, a pan-regional program aimed at accelerating wireless broadband deployment in Southeast Asian countries. Intel will provide extensive broadband wireless expertise, silicon and technical services for governments, telecommunications regulators, education, health and agriculture public sector agencies, and carriers to help them prepare for and conduct WiMAX trials.

"Intel believes that WiMAX can help the Philippines become more economically and socially dynamic. We collaborate with the government and industry ecosystem to increase technology accessibility and achieve digital inclusion through a cohesive and innovative wireless broadband deployment strategy. Such deployment will also bring us closer to the digital ASEAN vision, integrating the region to become competitive globally,"according to Ricky Banaag, country manager of Intel Microelectronics Philippines.

Requiring less set-up time compared to a wired infrastructure, a carrier can easily establish a wireless infrastructure. Wireless networks are more cost-efficient than the conventional wired network; thus, carriers can be more flexible in their cost structure and offer this service at a more affordable price.

"Innove’s vision is to transform the Philippines into the ICT hub of the ASEAN by bringing the country into the broadband age, to increase global competitiveness, open new avenues of learning, equalize opportunities, and fundamentally transform lives and businesses," said Gil Genio, chief executive officer of Innove Communications.

WiMAX is the burgeoning wide-area broadband wireless technology that shows great promise as the "last mile" solution for bringing high-speed Internet access into homes and businesses. While the more familiar Wi-Fi handles local areas, such as in offices or hotspots, WiMAX covers wider, metropolitan or rural areas. It can provide data rates up to 75 megabits per second (Mbps) per base station with typical cell sizes of two to 10 kilometers. This is enough bandwidth to simultaneously support (through a single base station) more than 60 businesses with T1/E1-type connectivity and hundreds of homes with DSL-type connectivity.