Intel beams $11.5 million to mobile carrier VMAX
Taiwanese mobile carrier VMAX has nabbed $11.5 million investment from Intel Capital (the venture capital branch of Intel). The money has yet to change hands, but should give VMAX the push it needs to launch the country’s first mobile WiMAX network in early 2009. It also represents a 20 percent stake in the company for Intel.
Concurrently, Intel has struck a deal with the Taiwan Ministry of Economic affairs to build a laboratory facility for the development of open source mobile technology. These applications will be based on Intel’s new Atom chip, introduced in March. This move is part of a broader plan at the company to invest $500 million in operations in Taiwan, where there is still a lot of room for growth, reports VentureWire.
The tech giant has already invested in 30 companies and service providers looking to deploy WiMAX around the world, including Sprint and Clearwire in the U.S. VMAX is a joint venture of Tecom Co. and VIBO Telecom.
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About the Author, Camille Ricketts
Camille is the lead writer for GreenBeat. She came to VentureBeat from Google where she worked on its traditional platforms team, particularly in TV. Before that, she was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in New York and London. Follow her on Twitter at @camillericketts, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.
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