Otellini: Change IT policy

The United States will lose its competitive edge to other countries if it does not change its information technology infrastructure, move to mobile technology and implement new policies, Intel's incoming chief executive officer told a Washington, D.C., audience today.

"Technology and competitiveness are inextricably linked," said Paul Otellini, who is scheduled to become Intel's CEO in May. "It is not a given that the U.S. will remain number one in information technology."

Most growth in the world's Internet userbase has been in Asia, not the United States, said Otellini, speaking at the annual FOSE conference. For many countries outside the United States, technology is often a government mandate, Otellini added.

"It's not that we slowed down," said Otellini, currently Intel's president and chief operating officer. "It's that other countries are moving more aggressively to deploy this type of infrastructure."

Research, development and education will take years to have an impact, but the country can push for infrastructure, mobility and policy right now, Otellini said.

He called for a shift to multiple-core processors, an idea that Intel has been pushing in recent years. "We've taken the approach of parallelism," he said of Intel, which will release the first dual-core products in the second quarter of this year.

Otellini also urged the government to improve security within its own infrastructure, using technologies such as facial recognition.

On the mobility front, the technology's rate of adoption could increase with government help, Otellini said. Public-private partnerships at the municipal level can make Wi-Fi data communications pervasive, he said.

Government policies can help the development of next generation wireless technology WiMax, said Otellini, who believes the federal government should free up spectrum for WiMax communications.