Broadband wireless player ArrayComm Inc. is gearing up for a public entry into the WiMax sector, amid rumors that the company has struck a partnership deal with market shaper Intel Corp. (Nasdaq: INTC).

ArrayComm has so far kept its plans for the WiMax market largely under wraps, publicly focusing instead on licensing its iBurst Personal Broadband kit and "smart antenna" technology in GSM and wireless local loop networks.

Earlier this year Unstrung reported that the company has quietly become a booster for WiMax wireless metropolitan area networking (MAN) technology. ArrayComm is attempting to improve the RF propagation of WiMax, so that the technology will work better for users connected via radio cards and modems inside a building, as well as through the more traditional fixed-wireless boxes mounted on the outside (see WiMax Gets 'Smart').

According to the vendor’s director of marketing, Steven Glapa, the company will be ready to disclose official details in the new year. “We’ve a bunch of news,” he says.

Several sources have also told Unstrung that the company has struck a deal with Intel, integrating its technology into Intel’s future range of WiMax chips.

“We are working with companies who are very important to the evolution of WiMax,” Glapa comments tactfully. Intel was not available for comment.

Such a tie-in would not surprise analysts. “ArrayComm would probably do the RF work whilst Intel would focus on the baseband side,” notes Emmy Johnson of Sky Light Research.

— Justin Springham, Senior Editor, Europe, Unstrung