The IEEE group in charge of developing standards for the 802.20 broadband wireless standard voted to remove the leaders of the technical committee. In June, the IEEE temporarily halted the standards process after Intel and Motorola complained about the way the working group's chairman, Jerry Upton, allegedly handled draft proposals in favor of Qualcomm and Kyocera. Upton called himself an independent consultant, but reportedly revealed to the IEEE that he had a relationship with Qualcomm. Though an appeal filed by Intel was turned down earlier this summer, the board unanimously voted on Friday to replace four officers in the group, including Upton. The board wants to eliminate any perception of bias and Steve Mills, chairman of the standards board, said it was difficult to make progress because of the interaction of various members. Evidently, Intel and Qualcomm have made some verbal potshots at each other. Remember that 802.20 competes with WiMAX.
To read more about the 802.20 standards process:
- check out this article from The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)