World's largest chipmaker Intel, which is a supporter of mobile broadband technology WiMAX, has said it will embrace competing platform Long Term Evaluation (LTE) when it is widely available globally.

"There is no debate between Wimax and LTE adoption. It is the decision that has to be taken by service providers and business decisions are not taken on the basis of technology.

We will take up LTE when it becomes a standard," Intel South Asia Managing Director (Sales and Marketing) R Sivakumar said.

The purpose of WiMAX and LTE is very clear and that is to accelerate growth roadmap of wireless broadband in the country, he added.

Both WiMAX and LTE support mobile wireless broadband but LTE is an advanced version with much higher speed for downloading data applications and is in the process of evolution.

WiMAX is already being deployed in 500 networks in 147 countries, while LTE as a technology is still in trial stages and commercial deployment is a few years away.

However, with operators globally indicating preference for LTE over WiMAX for deploying fourth-generation high-speed mobile phone networks, Intel has been faced with the tough choice of which technology to support.

LTE is also being backed by some of the world's biggest telecom equipment makers like Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent.

Though Indian companies have not divulged which technology they would take up, operators seem to be favouring LTE.

"WiMax is here and it is available now and operators looking at faster return on investments will choose it. The goal is to provide mobile broadband services. When LTE becomes a standard, we will integrate in our platform," he said.