With the demonstration of a WiMAX network at the recent Chicago WiMAX World trade show, Motorola has illustrated just how close practical carrier-provided WiMAX capabilities could be to general availability. Intel and Nokia are also presaging the reality of WiMAX with their partnership to integrate Intel WiMAX chipsets into Nokia instruments. While it remains to be seen whether carriers--particularly Sprint, which has committed to a 2008 rollout--will execute on on their plans to deploy WiMAX generally, enterprise IT organizations will need to plan now for this and other broadband wireless technologies.

Motorola's trial is significant for at least two reasons: first it indicates that mobile WiMAX can function in an open, urban environment. Second, it proves that WiMAX may soon become an available option in mobile instruments and computing devices. Mobile workers who adopt WiMAX for its superior bandwidth (up to 70 Mbps) will want the same capabilities supported by their employers.

In our recent benchmark on the Virtual Workplace, Nemertes found that having a mobility strategy was key to leveraging the power of technologies such as WiMAX and 21.6% of the IT executives we spoke with indicated that they had or were planning to evaluate WiMAX. Now that WiMAX may be generally available within the next year, planning for WiMAX is even more of an imperative. With WiMAX bandwidth, integrated collaboration over wireless networks becomes practical. Mobile workers will likely acquire and use WiMAX-capable laptops, and will expect to be able to use them both on campus as well as off campus to access enterprise applications.

Nemertes sees the following impacts:

For enterprises: WiMAX offers the real potential for work-on-the-move mobility, and it and similar 3G and 4G technologies are certain to drive such expectations in an increasingly mobile work force. Enterprises need to plan to support this demand.

For vendors: Expect at least an uptick in WiMAX chipsets and WiMAX-capable devices, and make sure your products and services work with them.

For investors: WiMAX will likely prove a benefit for Intel and Motorola. Assuming that demand follows deployment, Sprint could also benefit when rolls out the first WiMAX network with a national footprint early in 2008.

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