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Obviously, WiMax supporters want to make sure their products do what they're supposed to do, but they may eventually have to be deployed overseas to prove their worth before finally finding a place in the U.S. Of course, the pending field trials will certainly tell a huge part of the story.

Of course, standards won't necessarily make everything work the way it should, so some are calling for greater analysis to measure what technologies work and what needs to be clarified or even abandoned if the outcomes don't measure up to the expectations.

Plans call for Moscow and St. Petersburg to be among the first 10 cities to get the service, with the other selected cities to be phased in during a 27-month period.

Both companies expect to launch their products in the U.S. early next year and the technology should get some attention very quickly. The only concern is whether or not this networking platform will be affordable to the average person at home who wants to set up their own wireless network without having to go to extremes.

Not a bad strategy, and it makes good marketing sense. In the short term, WiFi clearly has the edge, but by the end of the decade, it could be a different story. Nevertheless, it doesn't look that there will be a battle between the two technologies at this time, and they could very well learn to co-exist if everything turns out according to plan.

Of course, the big enchilada is (no surprise) New York City. Obviously, with a city this big and so embedded with a governmental bureaucracy, a citywide wireless network proposal that everyone can generally agree upon is going to take a while to sift through and get going. There are, of course, a myriad of logistical issues to work out-where antennas will be placed, who will manage the network, how much will it cost, etc.

According to the story we're linking to, there's a hearing scehduled for the middle of next week to discuss a bill to create a commission to advise Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the city council on how the city can develop a wireless network. You can see already that there will be a number of layers and people that will be involved in the process, so from this viewpoint, it doesn't seem likely that Manhattan will have a wireless network up and running by the end of 2006.

However, city officials have to make sure that they don't fall too far behind in the growth of wireless, either. If Philly, San Francisco, and even New Orleans can get networks going in (relatively) short periods of time, then New York City has to follow suit and move forward. It really is to their advantage if they do.

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The threats are classified in two ways:

• Vulnerabilities-defined as a piece of a system or protocol that can be exploited to use the system in manner other than it was designed for. Examples include an unauthorized entity to pose as an authorized entity or information from authorized entities to be intercepted by or disclosed to an unauthorized entity

• Exploits-a technique, such as a program, piece of code, set of steps, or hardware device, which takes advantage of one or more vulnerabilities.

In essence, the technology enables carriers to double the number of customers they serve with each mobile phone tower. In addition, it will give customers the ability to have GPS tracking functionality on each cellphone in the network, as well as additional capabilities including live videoconferencing, up to eight live television channels on each phone, secure financial transactions, and the ability to use RFID-activated vending machines.

All of this and my neighborhood's skyline remains crystal clear? Sign me up!

Surely those interested in the U.S. will be watching how this network evolves so that if the coming field trials prove successful, the Sydney model will be one to emulate, at least in some situations.

However, WiFi hotspots have become big business for lots of coffee shops and restaurants as well as other enterprises, and their proprietors will not willingly give up their hotspot revenue base in order to support a municipal WiMax network. Consequently, there will be too much infighting going on between businesses and municipalities to agree on a set way to deliver wireless access, and local governments may not want to spend the money to fight them.

It's an interesting argument and Dvorak may turn out to be right. But WiMax still has to prove it's mettle in the upcoming field trials, and if things don't turn out as well as Intel (a MAJOR WiMax supporter) hopes they do, then the future of municipal WiFi may very well be cemented. We shall see...

As a result of the backlog of products waiting to be certified at the testing lab in Europe, the forum has been holding plugfests to allow companies to have their widgets tested and, if they pass, can feature an official WiMax certificate.

However, a growing number of companies, including vendors like Alvarion, are bypassing this process because their existing products have been shipping since before the 802.16-2004 standard was ratified. It seems the demand is too hot to stave off, so the WiMax Forum may have to ratchet up it's certification process or simply "grandfather" in those products that have been existing in the marketplace. Either way, something's got to give or the WiMax train could get sidetracked.