Proxim and Intel will work together on WiMax, a boon to Proxim: The smaller company's stock shot up 27 percent today on the news that it would be participating in what Intel has increasingly focused on as the next important wireless market. WiMax has the potential to offer point-to-point and mobile standardized broadband wireless service, but its time to market is still a concern.
If it doesn't achieve productization quicklly enough--and signs are that we might not see unlicensed WiMax products in the US until 2006--existing somewhat proprietary solutions could commoditize quickly enough for the market. Meanwhile, higher-speed cell data offerings might take the sheen off the necessity of mobile WiMax, although the latter's potential for using unlicensed bands gives it an edge.
SkyPilot's announcement today--after a few years of development--of their broadband wireless system adds another player to a tightly focused market that hopes to fill in the home and business broadband market. Their equipment works in the unlicensed 5.8 GHz band.
Although the press release says that Proxim expects to ship fixed broadband equipment in early 2005 and "portable" (not mobile) devices later next year, it doesn't state whether these will be shipped in the US or overseas, nor which bands will be used.