While WiMAX currently seems poised to become the long-range wireless networking technology of choice, we’re still going to need technologies like WiFi for short-range wireless networking. So why not create chips that can handle both standards? That seems to be the thinking behind Intel’s latest chip, which can handle WiFi, WiMAX and even DVB-H digital TV signals. The idea is that a device using the chip could access the Internet via WiFi in the home, hand off seamlessly to the WiMAX network when you leave the home and pull in digital television signals on the go. “There is a shift from people wanting their content any time, anywhere to any device, any network, and the problem is there are too many radios,” said Jeff Hoffman, system architect for Intel’s wireless communications lab. No word yet on when we’ll see this chip commercially, though it will hopefully roll out during the next few years, alongside U.S. WiMAX networks.

For more on the integrated chip:
– see this article from Electronics Weekly