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'Wi-Fi is viral growth phenomenon' claims Intel Chief
April 03, 2004;
like the cell phone was to telephony, so wi-fi was to computing

Outlining his company's wireless strategy to an audience of the wireless sector's great and good at last month's 3GSM World Congress, Intel President and Chief Operating Officer Paul Otellini identified Wi-Fi as integral to the further expansion of mobile computing.

With Pyramid research predicting 700 million users of Wi-Fi by 2007, wireless has become a key part of Intel's future strategy.

"Just like the cell phone was to telephony, so wi-fi was to computing. It allowed us to greater expand where and how we do computing," explains Otellini. "Wi-fi is a viral growth phenomenon. It is unregulated, it came up from the IEEE standard bodies, and it is a bottoms-up tech embraced by users, one by one, and then millions by millions, because it made their computing life easier. And very importantly, it's one standard worldwide."

Otellini identifies four important wireless standards in the years ahead. These are: GSM; Wi-Fi; Wi-Max " a broadband metro-based deployment of wi-fi; and Wi-Media " which Otellini regards as "the next Bluetooth".

"Consumers are going to want their devices to work on all of these networks," says Otellini. But how? And what's Intel's strategy for implementing its wireless programme?

TelecomTV.com has now made available Paul Otellini's key presentation that he delivered at 3GSM World Congress, the global wireless industry's leading conference. TelecomTV's free PowerStream service provides a synchronised slide presentation together with streaming video.

To watch the presentation, simply visit www.decisivemedia.co.uk/media/intel.

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