This isn't just lip-service support. Intel is incorporating WiMax into its next generation of laptop Wi-Fi chips, the Montevina/Centrino 2. These chips will start shipping in June. Nokia has already announced that it will incorporate this chip family into its next-generation Internet tablet, the N810. By year's end, any new Intel-powered laptop you buy will have mobile WiMax baked in.

5. Lower management costs. The math here is easy. Would you rather maintain and monitor dozens of Wi-Fi APs per building or a single WiMax ground station? Would you prefer to support hundreds to thousands of 802.11 APs on a campus, or two to three WiMax stations? I think the answer's pretty darned easy.

And here's a bonus sixth reason. Newcomer Grid-Net has allied with General Electric and Intel to bring a new generation of electrical power meters to homes and businesses. These meters come with mobile WiMax built in. The resulting Smart Grid communications and networking platform promises to allow both the utility company and customers to be able to actively manage and control their electrical use and costs, and to make WiMax as ubiquitous as electrical power. American Electric Power and EnergyAustralia are already deploying these smart power meters.

The Techie Details

Mobile WiMax is quite new. Its IEEE standard 802.16e was only ratified in December 2005 as a set of amendments to 802.16-2004, the WiMax standard. These two standards work together in lockstep; without 802.16, there can be no 802.16e. The critical difference between the older foundation technology and mobile WiMax is that 802.16e can support mobile clients moving at up to 100Kmph.

WiMax has a maximum transmission range of 35 miles. However, distance quickly lowers the available bandwidth. For practical purposes, 10 miles is a more realistic limit in rural areas. According to Roger Marks, chairman of the IEEE 802.16 Working Group, one mile is a reasonable range to expect from mobile WiMax deployments in urban environments. In comparison, Wi-Fi has a range of several hundred feet, and two to three miles for 3G.

In theory, mobile WiMax can deliver 70Mbps on a single channel. In practice, range quickly attenuates its maximum throughput. Today's WiMax modems can support a sustained bandwidth of 6Mbps.

Mobile WiMax can operate on any range from 700MHz to 66GHz, but in the Americas, it will operate at 2.5GHz. This lower bandwidth gives mobile WiMax better building and obstacle penetration. You could cover an entire office building with a single WiMax ground station/access point.