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WiMax: A Wider Worldwide Web

Apple's new mobile phone may be Wi-Fi enabled, but most hot spots are either pay-for or password protected, which means iPhone content will still mostly run on AT&T's 2G wireless network.

If it's widely adopted, WiMax (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) technology could soon change the Internet and mobile wireless industries. Compared to DSL service and mobile carriers' 2 and even 3G networks, WiMax allows more data to travel faster over a much more expansive territory. Imagine having high-speed wireless Internet everywhere without needing to switch networks every few hundred feet.

Sprint Nextel, having invested some $3 billion in the technology, is trying to make those dreams come true before the end of this year. Its new service goes live in three major markets: Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., before the end of the year, making Sprint the first major carrier in the U.S. to launch a WiMax network. By 2009, Sprint hopes to extend its network to 100 million Americans in about 35 regions, charging a single price for access to the network.

Read the whole story at Business 2.0 »

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