SAN FRANCISCO (WiMAX Day). The Intel Developers Conference in San Francisco this week was not short on heart-leaping news for WiMAX. The most earnest of WiMAX champions, Intel has gone further than ever before in predicting the use and usefulness of WiMAX technology. As the tenacity of Intel’s statements about WiMAX increases, it seems the future tense of its predictions become ever more closer to reality.

In his keynote speech, Intel president and CEO Paul Otellini stated that Intel aims to make WiMAX as “ubiquitous” as Wi-Fi, and have it fully integrated into the fifth generation of Centrino chips by 2008.

Otellini also cited that the networks being deployed by Sprint and Clearwire over the next two years are a clear indication of the future success for WiMAX, and that these two companies alone will cover America with connectivity to nearly 100 million people. Furthermore, Mr Otellini cited the more than 200 WiMAX trials taking place around the world today as another proof of the coming success of WiMAX.

Otellini also took the time to paraphrase Sprint’s “value proposition” for investing in WiMAX, and said “It’s four times faster and one-tenth the cost of EVDO.”

Among the predictions from the Intel conference was that PC cards compatible with the 802.16e standard would be available by the first quarter of 2007. This is particularly good news for service providers hoping to give some mobility to their customers. There are numerous PCMCIA cards available now for fixed WiMAX, the most popular among them being the Ripwave MX from Navini.

One of the most interesting statements to come from the conference was made by Sriram Viswanathan, vice president and director of the mobility sector at Intel Capital. Viswanathan was quoted in the online journal EE Times as stating that WiMAX would “fundamentally change the laptop computer business model”. He added that he believes that the business model for mobile WiMAX will evolve much like the GSM model, where eventually WiMAX-enabled handsets will be subsidised by the service operators and sold at reduced rates on long-term contracts.