IEEE stops Qualcomm standards review

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a standard-setting organization, has put on hold its review of an advanced wireless technology favored by Qualcomm due to a squabble involving Intel, a report from The Wall Street Journal, cited by Reuters, said.

The report said the move might delay the adoption of a technology that could compete with WiMAX, which Intel had been promoting to provide long-range broadband access for laptop computers and other devices.

The report said the institute's standards board last week disclosed that it had suspended activities of the so-called 802.20 working group, which reviewed technologies that could provide faster high-speed Internet access than most mobile phones.

In January, the group narrowed its consideration to a joint technology proposal from Qualcomm and Japan's Kyocera, the report said.

The Reuters report said Intel and some other WiMAX backers, including South Korea 's Samsung, had been trying since November to get the committee to consider alternative proposals. They had been repeatedly voted down, minutes of the group's meetings showed.