Amended from Information Week:

Wireless technology is transforming the way people and businesses communicate. Cell phones, wireless LANs, wireless home networks, and Wi-Fi hot-spots mean that voice and data communications can take place just about anywhere at any time. But the big change in communications won't come about until high-speed wireless services become commonplace, something that hundreds of vendors are working feverishly to bring about. The technology of choice is called WiMax, a next-generation version of Wi-Fi that offers much faster speeds and a much greater range.

"WiMax will enable the wireless Internet and bring about changes of biblical proportions in the way we communicate with each other," Hossein Eslambolchi, CIO and chief technology officer for AT&T, the leading long-distance company, said in an interview last year.

Today, tens of thousands of Wi-Fi hot-spots provide data speeds of a few megabits per second over distances of a few hundred feet. Wireless LANs can reach speeds of more than 50 Mbps, but their reach is still limited. WiMax, if it works as promised, will deliver data speeds of 70 Mbps or more over distances of more than 37 miles--true wireless broadband service.