WiMAX has long been coupled with promises of being one to two years from widespread deployment. Now it looks like that promise may actually become a reality for a select number of metropolitan areas, starting with Portland, Oregon, where Sprint and Clearwire are running trials of their new Xohm service. Xohm could go a long way toward bridging the digital divide. And I don’t mean the divide that separates our own haves and have-nots, though it could help with that as well. I mean the divide that separates the US from other developed countries that already enjoy faster and more reliable wireless data services. The WiMAX technology behind Xohm could bring us up to speed, and Sprint is working closely with Intel on plans for building WiMAX chipsets into a wide array of devices, not just laptops and mobile phones, but also anything else that you could possibly connect to the internet, digital cameras, mp3 players, camcorders, refrigerators, etc. WiMAX has the potential to dislodge WiFi because it is a mobile technology that allows you to roam between work and home. Sprint plans to allow Enterprises to provide wireless connectivity through corporate-owned Xohm compatible WiMAX base stations. When employees move beyond the range of the corporate network, they will automatically switch to the Xohm service. Time will tell if WiMAX actually becomes commercially available in 2008 as Sprint and Intel suggest. When it does, the standards-based platform for WiMAX technology may drive down costs delivering volume economics to WiMAX equipment and in turn bandwidth capacity for Enterprises and end consumers. Technology Industry