On Track 2 are so-called wireless mobile broadband technologies. The best known of these technologies is mobile WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access), which could start appearing in a handful of markets in pre-certified form by the end of this year. A fixed version of WiMax is already available in many markets.

Mobile WiMax is best known because its most visible advocate, Intel Corp., has been waging a relentless marketing campaign for the technology over the past couple of years, just as it did for Wi-Fi. The technology scored a major victory recently when Sprint announced that it would use it for a new nationwide wireless network. A fixed, point-to-point version of WiMax already is available in many markets.

However, mobile WiMax is not the only type of mobile wireless broadband. Qualcomm is the champion of FLASH-OFDM, which it acquired when it bought Flarion Technologies last year. Qualcomm also owns an extensive portfolio of patents related to both OFDM and OFDMA. Another player is IPWireless Inc., which developed a type of wireless broadband called UMTS TDD. Both FLASH-OFDM and UMTS TDD already are available and have met with some success in markets around the world.

At this early stage, the modulation technology used for fixed WiMax is OFDM, but OFDMA is the improvement that everybody expects to start becoming commonplace soon. In fact, mobile WiMax is OFDMA-based, according to Debrecht.

"OFDMA systems provide more carrier signals and support more users in a more flexible way compared to OFDM, Debrecht said.