WiMax on the Horizon

A "souped up" version of WiFi is on the verge of taking over the world, sez Business Week.

Demand [for WiFi] is soaring, thanks to faster, cheaper, and more reliable technology, and to open standards that let tech giants like Intel (INTC ) bundle Wi-Fi radios into mass-market computers. The number of Wi-Fi users is expected to soar 57% this year, to 118 million worldwide, according to Pyramid Research. Not bad for a technology that's only a few years old.

It's amazing how quickly we get spoiled by WiFi. It's reached the point where I get annoyed if I check into a hotel that doesn't have it (or charges through the nose for it). So bad has my jones for WiFi become that last week when my car was being worked on, I asked naively if the Saturn service center had WiFi in its waiting room (I can't believe I actually asked that question with a straight face!) and then proceeded to discover that I was in the only place in the universe (Central Avenue in Albany) without a Starbucks nearby.

Who will deliver universal WiFi hotspots (Google?) and how they are delivered is still up for grabs, but the biggest driver of increased WiFi (or WiMax) hotspots will simply be the increasing expectation that they will exist.