News
Intel Leads Wireless Internet Coalition
- By Scott Bekker
- September 13, 2000
Intel Corp., along with nine other companies, announced a broad industry initiative to bring wireless Internet access to the level of use of traditional land line data access. The Mobile Data Initiative Next Generation (MDI-ng) will focus on developing standards and specifications designed to accelerate the creation and adoption of wireless Internet technologies.
The MDI-ng is dedicated to identifying and removing common technical and market barriers that currently limit wireless Internet connectivity and performance for mobile users. In addition to Intel (www.intel.com), the MDI-ng member companies are BT Cellnet (www.cellnet.co.uk), Dell Computer Corp. (www.dell.com), France Telecom (www.francetelecom.fr), Fujitsu Siemens Computers GmbH (www.fujitsu-siemens.com), Hewlett-Packard Co. (www.hp.com), Motorola Corp. (www.motorola.com), Siemens Mobile (www.siemensmobile.com), Sonera Corp. (www.sonera.com), and Toshiba Corp (www.toshiba.com).
The Europe-based Global System for Mobile (GSM) Association also supports the launch of the group.
The MDI-ng will set up wireless industry meetings and workshops where service providers and suppliers will meet to discuss interoperability issues. Interoperability tests and technology overviews will be carried out to help guide the efforts of participating companies, industry standards bodies, and the broader mobile services sector.
The objective of the MDI-ng is to promote tested and proven wireless systems that are simpler and more reliable to use. The group will primarily address wireless access by different mobile devices to cellular phone systems; however, the group will also focus on complementary wireless technologies such as Bluetooth and wireless LANs.
In addition, the MDI-ng will focus on packet switched wireless networks. - Isaac Slepner
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.