Beceem is a Santa Clara start-up that provides chips for mobile WiMax technology. WiMax has become all the rage because it allows broadband access for miles of territory.
WiMax ranges much as 10 miles, while the WiFi we know today reaches only a few hundred feet. Intel wants to use WiMax to allow someone to get wireless access on a laptop anywhere.
The WiMax technology is only now being deployed, so there is still a lot of risk still. But Beceem is the first to have demonstrated a suitable full-fleded “IEEE 802.16e” mobile WiMax chipset. Motorola is using it in Europe, for example.
It appears to be running away with a clear tech lead. Last week, we visited with Vinod Khosla, a well-known Silicon Valley venture capitalist who is backing Beceem. And he was beaming. Beside him, was Beceem’s chief executive, Shahin Hedayat, who had just finished a meeting with Khosla. Later we found out why they were happy. Things are going so well for Beceem, its backers wanted to cough up more money to allow it to expand. Beceem has raised $27.1 million and may raise more. Its backers include Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Walden International and Global Catalyst Partners.
Turns out, Intel is having to resell Beceem’s chip for Intel’s WiMax efforts — even though Intel is spending $1 billion on distributing WiMax. You’d think Intel, the chip giant, would want to sell its own chips. You look behind the curtains, and there’s only this tiny start-up Beceem doing it all. Intel recently sold off a mobile handset chip unit too, so it doesn’t have too much momentum in the mobile space.
Beceem may be well-placed because it bypassed fixed WiMax and went straight to the mobile platform, which you’d think is more compelling since the trend is toward cell usage. A host of companies like Redpine Signals, RF Magic, Sequans, Sierra Monolithics, Telecis, and Wavesat have all been focused on fixed WiMax.
Earlier this year, Beceem raised $40 million, from Intel and Samsung, which is dominant in Korea, where WiMax is also being adopted.
There is another competitor, TeleCIS, but it doesn’t have near the funding.
2 Comments
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RK said:
There are quiet few players working on mobile WiMax chipset. issue is who has the lowest power chipset ( few hundred Milli amp and lower) , and does it have the claimed data rate, and is there a Wirless Carrier who is willing to sign up for handsets.
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RK said:
BTW on Laptop with 10 miles range, this is like UTMS service Verizon offers today, I sure data rate would be better. Also ClearWire (Intel funded) is building out an nationwide ISP service using WiMAX, I know they some location in central valley running.
3 Trackbacks
6:13 am
VentureBeat Wire » Beceem raises $40M more for mobile WiMax offering said:
[...] The promise of WiMax is that it ranges as far as 10 miles, while WiFi reaches only a few hundred feet. It’s challenge is that is just now being rolled out, and so it is untested in most of the world. Intel wants to use WiMax to allow someone to get wireless access on a laptop anywhere, and has backed Beceem’s efforts to jump straight to a mobile version of WiMax. See our story here on Beceem. [...]
4:41 pm
VentureBeat » Altair raises $18M for mobile WiMAX chips said:
[...] leading the charge to develop reliable, power-efficient and smaller WiMAX chips. (VentureBeat recently wrote about Beceem, one of those [...]
12:12 pm
Voting for MobileBeat2008 best companies begins » VentureBeat said:
[...] — a Silicon Valley company offering a next-generation mobile broadband chip for WiMax, being used by Motorola and also Intel. Bytemobile — provides mobile internet software and services for data networks operators, [...]