By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter


Intel, the world’s biggest chipmaker, will forge a partnership with a Korean system integration operator Posdata today for the country’s homegrown portable Internet, called WiBro, according to a source.

The informed source Tuesday said the two companies will sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) geared toward cooperating broadly in WiBro.

``It can be a win-win solution. The team-up will be helpful for Intel to develop WiBro chips with advanced technologies of Posdata,’’ said the source who declined to be named.

``Posdata will be able to capitalize on the wide-ranging sales channel of Intel when shipping its WiBro equipment to overseas markets,’’ he added.

When contacted, Posdata, a subsidiary of the nation’s steel giant POSCO, partially confirmed the high-profile international hook-up while comments were unavailable from Intel Korea.

``We plan to hold a signing ceremony with a global company late tomorrow (Wednesday) at our head office in Pundang, Kyonggi Province,’’ a Posdata spokesman said.

However, he refused to elaborate with whom the firm will team up and the field where the two companies will cooperate in the future.

WiBro, short for wireless broadband, is made-in-Korea techniques that enable people on the go to access to the Internet at the speed of the current fixed-line broadband.

KT, Korea’s predominant landline carrier, plans to commercially launch the go-anywhere Internet services here in months for the first time in the world.

For the early take-up of the Internet-on-the-move offerings, KT looks to invest 500 billion won this year, after spending 100 billion won last year.

Another WiBro licensee, SK Telecom, the nation’s foremost mobile carrier, also said Tuesday it would shell out 170 billion won for the futuristic feature. The company originally expected to spend 100 billion won.

voc200@koreatimes.co.kr