The world's top supplier of x86 microprocessors for notebooks, Intel, and the leading producer of mobile phones, Nokia, have both decided to scrap the plans to jointly develop HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) module for notebooks, which would allow end-users to use high-speed mobile Internet without need to acquire additional hardware. "We have, together with Intel, cancelled the HSDPA module cooperation in the form we formerly announced. We are still looking at the HSDPA module case from a technological point of view, but no decisions have been made on commercializing it," said Eija-Riitta Huovinen, a Nokia spokeswoman.
In mid-2006, Intel was working on the code-named Windigo technology which was claimed to be a set of chips as well as radio antenna that provided notebooks connectivity to 2.5G (EDGE, Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) and 3G (CDMA-2000/WCDMA) networks. Specially designed cards would no longer be needed although users would have to plug-in their SIM cards into computers to connect. Nokia's HSDPA technology was supposed to be a part of Intel's code-named Santa Rosa mobile platform. However, the companies decided not to proceed with the feature due to inadequate potential return on investment: "We both saw that there was not an adequate business case," Ms. Huovinen said.
News source: Xbit Laboratories
