And there will be other options as well. The IEEE 802.20 effort, long derailed by politics, is getting back on track. I spoke with a few folks from Qualcomm's Flarion unit and they told me that not only do they offer a very viable competitor to WiMax, they are forging ahead with a number of operational deployments. They also claimed greater spectral efficiency at less than or equal to the cost of WiMax equipment. And they noted that the other big mobile broadband effort, the 3GPP's LTE (Long-Term Evolution) and EV-DO Rev B are well along and will give WiMax, despite its enormous marketing momentum, a run for its money. There's even talk of an EV-DO Rev C that might come out of 802.20 or LTE, and we can't rule out other 4G entries in the future.

Still, there is no denying that Sprint's announcement was the first big, juicy pickle out of the WiMax jar. The strong support of Intel (chips) and Motorola (base station equipment), as well as handset leader Samsung adds fuel to Sprint's fire. Regardless, the WiMax community has renewed momentum, and the gap between wireline and wireless performance continues to narrow. But, as I've illustrated above, it's early, and WiMax won't be the only game in town.

Craig J. Mathias is a principal with Farpoint Group, an advisory firm specializing in wireless networking and mobile computing. He can be reached at craig@farpointgroup.com.