RIYADH (WiMAX Day). Intel Corporation and the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) in Saudi Arabia have announced an agreement to launch a research and development facility.

The facility will be hosted by KACST in Riyadh and will be a development hub for the Middle East, Gulf, Turkey and Africa.

According to KACST, R&D efforts will focus on networking deployment of WiMAX, and will offer services to telecom operators and systems integrators. The facility also will conduct limited interoperability testing for equipment, as well as performance studies and experiments for new services.

Intel chairman Craig Barrett commented that “research and development are the basis for future success and WiMAX is especially important in developing markets where wire-line technology is limited due to the lack of infrastructure…. We are confident that this lab will provide an excellent platform for Arab scientists and scholars to be innovative in the field of telecommunications and in particular in the WiMAX and networking arena.”

WiMAX is considered a key enabling technology in many Arab countries, and is believed will contribute to future economic growth. “The young generation expects and deserves equal access to the tools of the knowledge economy and everyone will benefit as this generation becomes the leaders of tomorrow,” said Prince Dr Turki Saud Mohammed Al-Saud, vice president for Research Institutes at KACST.