Intel to launch major ISP strategy.

Intel is launching a major program that will attempt to transform Internet service providers into a conduit for Intel products and services, the latest indication that the humble ISP is rapidly moving toward the center of the digital world. The new effort in many ways will be crucial to boosting business projects at Intel that right now sit more at the periphery of the company or are just emerging. ISPs, for instance, will become one of the conduits for selling Web hosting and data services, which Intel will start marketing later this year, according to Robby Swinnen, worldwide director of the ISP program at Intel, as well as the company_s growing networking line. Interestingly, ISPs will also become an important market for generic "white box" servers manufactured by Intel. The company currently sells one-, two-, and four-processor servers in limited numbers. Sales will likely expand under the program as ISPs will need to expand their own server banks, Swinnen said.