BOSTON--Motorola and Intel announced at the WiMAX World conference here that they would work together to promote 802.16e Mobile WiMAX standardization and interoperability efforts. The relationship does not indicate the companies are cooperating on specific products, Motorola emphasized.

"The emphasis will be on 802.16e," said Juan Santiago, senior director of 802.16 product management at Motorola. "We'll seriously work on the interoperability issues particularly related to the devices. In this business, volume drives cost down, and this relationship further shows our commitment to WiMAX."

He added, "With 16e, we are waiting for the standard to be finished and settled, and we don't want to see multiple flavors of this technology that don't talk to each other."

Meanwhile, Motorola is involved in an ongoing 802.16e development relationship and trial with Sprint Nextel, a project that was forged with Sprint before its merger with Nextel was completed. The same day in June that Motorola and Sprint announced their project, Nextel said it was working with TD-CDMA firm IPWireless on a trial. Since then, Sprint Nextel also added a trial last month with Samsung that is focused on 802.16e.

Santiago said the multiple trials are "a positive thing for the industry." From a vendor perspective, he added, "It could become a bake-off. Right now, we think they are trying different things."