Cisco to join WiMAX patent-sharing group

Cisco Systems is expected to announce on Monday that it will be joining an initiative to jumpstart WiMax innovation through the sharing of WiMax patents, Computerworld reports. The players involved include Clearwire, Sprint Nextel and three WiMax equipment providers, Alcatel-Lucent, Intel and Samsung, the story reports. It says:

However, several well-known WiMax providers are not on the list, including Motorola Inc., which is providing equipment for a field test of mobile WiMax services in Chicago as part of the Xohm initiative spearheaded by Sprint. ... Sprint and Clearwire announced a $14.5 billion WiMax joint venture on May 6 that includes investments by Intel, Google Inc. and cable providers to fund a nationwide build-out of a WiMax network that analysts had noted is badly in need of stimulus.

Cisco's participation in this group is perhaps a sign that the troubled technology may survive its current woes. WiMax has been called unreliable and untested and has faced competition from rival technologies such as High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technologies. Also see Can the Clearwire coalition save WiMAX?

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