Intel won a piece of the Swedish airwaves and announced today that it plans to develop a nationwide WiMax network. Intel paid $26 million for a 15-year license and hopes to make money by selling microchips that a WiMax network will need. Intel business developer Carl-Daniel Norenberg said the company is looking for partners to build and operate the network, but that Intel will rent out the license rather than selling it.

It was announced yesterday that Intel is an investor in a WiMax partnership that Sprint Nextel and Clearwire are building in the United States. Intel invested $1 billion in the U.S. venture. Intel has also invested money with a group that is planning to build a WiMax network in Japan.

It appears as though Intel is spreading around a little seed money to help grow WiMax technology in already developed markets. It is banking that the wireless nature and fast download speeds of WiMax will be able to crack national markets that are already near the saturation point, when it comes to mobile phones and number of national Internet connections.