Intel Looks Cozy with Clearwire

An Intel representative said the company does not comment on future investments that the company may or may not make.

Even building a scaled-down mobile WiMax network is extremely expensive. Stifel Nicolaus analyst Christopher King reckons Clearwire will need an additional $3 billion to $4 billion to move ahead with its current business plan of providing mobile WiMax service in limited regions of the U.S.

And with Intel slated to roll out WiMax chips for notebooks in May , the chipmaker has a keen interest in ensuring that those notebooks actually have a connecting network.

According to King, the longer it takes for WiMax service to be introduced, the greater the threat that it could be rendered obsolete by rival wireless technologies like LTE, or Long Term Evolution, the next-generation of the GSM standard used by many cell phones today.

"WiMax is something that in our view is going to have to get done sooner rather than later," says King. "The window opening for WiMax technology is going to be pretty brief."

In the U.S., SprintNextel is the only other WiMax game in town at this point, and that company's plans to build a WiMax network are also somewhat shaky, following the ouster of CEO Gary Forsee .

SprintNextel says it remains committed to WiMax -- the company is currently testing the wireless service in Chicago and Washington D.C. and plans to offer commercial service in several U.S. cities later this year.

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