C/Net and ZD Net reported that IEEE has officially approve the 802.16-REVd/D5 (WiMax). However, products based on the finalized 802.16d standard are months away from the consumer market.
WiMax is designed to compensate for the range limitation of Wi-Fi, which cannot go beyond 100-300 feet. WiMax's range goes from 25 miles in a fixed network to 1-3 miles in a mobile (802.16e) configuration. It can use inexpensive base stations, utilizing an Ethernet (IP) backbone which is unlike the proprietary cellular backend currently being used by WiFi access points. It can use licensed (2.6 & 3.5GHz) and unlicensed (2.4 & 5 GHz) bands.
Whether WiMax will deliver true DSL and cable modem competition remains to be seen.
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