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Unwired, Intel stoush before courts over WiMAX

Federal court ordered Unwired to payback $38 million investment, but Intel wants more
Unwired has been ordered to payback more than $38 million to chipmaker, Intel,

Unwired has been ordered to payback more than $38 million to chipmaker, Intel,

The Federal Court of Australia has ordered Unwired to payback more than $38 million chipmaker, Intel, had invested in the ISP in 2005 to push WiMAX networks.

The judgement was handed out by the Federal Court in December, but this week, the Australian IT reported the chipmaker had demanded another $18.5 million and that the legal battle may continue between the ISP’s owner, Seven Group, and Intel over Unwired’s WiMAX network rollout.

Back in 2005, Unwired CEO David Spence said the $38m investment made by Intel Capital would make wireless broadband available to a greater number of Australians, and enable WiMax to be deployed in cities as equipment becomes available.

Unwired was planning to support Intel products under the IEEE 802.16e WiMAX standard for wireless use in infrastructure equipment and notebooks.

Australia's 20 biggest cities could have been covered by a $500 million commercial-grade mobile WiMAX network by 2010, but Unwired’s rollout of a national WiMAX network has suffered several delays and is expected to cost 10 to 15 per cent more due to the global financial crisis.

Intel was unable to comment on the stoush as it is currently before the courts, but provided a prepared statement in which it signalled its continued support for the deployment of WiMAX worldwide.

“[Intel] hopes to keep working with Unwired as they deploy a 2.3GHz WiMAX network. Intel Capital is typically an early seed investor and with the change of ownership to Seven, we believe Unwired is well equipped financially to build out its WiMAX network.”

Unwired CEO, David Spence, declined to comment on the dispute.

Nominations for the 2012 ARN IT Industry Awards open on Tuesday, June 12.

More about: CGI, IEEE, Intel, Intel Capital, Unwired
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