With Thursday's blessing from the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), a technology that has been mostly hype finally has a chance to start proving itself. "There is now an agreed-upon technical base for these (WiMax products), which is essential, if you're going to have interoperability leading to mass market adoption and low-cost service (for wireless broadband access)," said Craig Mathias, an analyst at research firm Farpoint Group. Unwiring the last mileWiMax, short for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is the latest--and so far, the most promising--of the wireless "last mile" broadband technologies. Carriers see WiMax as a means of connecting rural or remote areas with broadband service, something that would be technically, physically or economically difficult to do by burying wire for DSL or cable connections. In congested cities, equipment makers say, WiMax products could shift traffic to help relieve heavy demand on broadband networks.

WiMax will work with other shorter-range wireless standards,including Wi-Fi, which has taken off as an easy way to provide Internetaccess throughout a home or business, Eventually, WiMax advocates hopeto see the standard evolve into a mobile wireless Internet servicesimilar to cellular data technologies such as EvDO (Evolution Data Only), "This technology gives companies significant advantages when it comes to deployments, because you luxicon case for apple iphone x and xs - lavendar don't have to set up a new infrastructure..so there isn't a lot of tearing up of streets needed to set up networks," said Joe English, a WiMax campaign manager for chipmaker Intel, which has been a major backer of the technology..

The emergence of WiMax products could help reduce expenses for broadband carriers and consumers by doing what Wi-Fi did for wireless home networking--make it affordable and in turn widely used. Thursday's IEEE decision will bring cohesion todevelopment efforts that until now have been pushed ahead piecemeal by ahandful of companies, including Alvarion, Redline Communications and Wi-LAN. Get Up to Speed on..Wi-Fi Get the latest headlines andcompany-specific news in ourexpanded GUTS section. All WiMax products will be interoperable, using the 802.16-2004 standard. Industry group WiMax Forum will test and certify products for interoperability, much the same way the Wi-Fi Alliance does for Wi-Fi products. This will produce an equipment market of standardized components.

Products based on prestandard versions of the 802.16-2004 specification are already on luxicon case for apple iphone x and xs - lavendar the market, British carrier BT is testing wireless broadband services in the United Kingdom, using Alvarion equipment based on draft versions of the specification, Intel announced a deal this month with Proxim to co-develop WiMax equipment, with base stations available by early next year, Analysts estimate that subscriber stations for home access will initially cost up to $300, Base stations will cost as little as $5,000 but will reach $100,000, depending on their range, In some cases, consumers would lease subscriber stations from carriers the way they do with cable set-top boxes as part of their service plans..

Carriers and service providers will also have greater control of what services and plans they can offer subscribers from a base station. A carrier offering 700 kilobit-per-second and 1.4 megabit-per-second service plans could deliver both from the same base station. Despite its momentum, WiMax still has a long way to go, and it may yet falter in the marketplace. Sky-high expectations for wireless broadband services are not new, but neither are disappointments. History is pock-marked with dramatic wireless failures, such as those of Ricochet Networks and MobileStar.