John Rogers: Verizon already has wireless broadband in many cities, pretty fast and with much coverage. You need one of their datacards, and you could use it in a moving car.
Andrew Nowicki, Minneapolis: I wonder why you have not mentioned UMTS, the most popular broadband, wireless standard. WiMAX is a vaporware similar to UMTS. The WiMAX specs represent, at best, theoretical maximum under ideal circumstances.

As mentioned in the story, telecom companies worldwide have pushed forward with a number of high speed wireless solutions; Verizon is probably farthest ahead in the U.S. and their BroadbandAccess service has received good reviews.

Here at the European Technology Roundtable, a number of people are talking about additional advanced 3G solutions for high speed broadband. Generally speaking, the European countries are several years ahead of the U.S. in this area, so WiMAX may not be as interesting an opportunity for them. On the other hand, the telecom world seems to be developing a number of incompatible systems. If the WiMAX proponents can truly create a single standard, that could be an advantage down the line. Ultimately, in fact, WiMAX plus VoIP could finally create a truly universal mobile telephone standard worldwide.

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Mike Rogers, Simi Valley, California: What if any health risks are involved in wireless?

This is a long-term controversy, going back at least to the late 70s when Paul Brodeur wrote a book called "The Zapping of America," raising health concerns about both microwave transmitters as well as radiation from high tension power lines. When cell phones came along (which also operate in the microwave range) they were added to that list. Quite a bit of research has ensued, and the results remain controversial, although the mainstream scientific opinion is either that the evidence is inconclusive or negative.

Radio waves diminish in strength very quickly as the distance from the transmitter increases, so cell phones held against the ear remain the objects of greatest concern. The new wireless services for computers should be less worrisome. Generally speaking, the direction of new wireless technologies is toward lower transmitting power, to extend battery life in portable device. We’ve been living in a soup of low-level electromagnetic radiation for many decades; the addition of a few more wireless services probably won’t tip the balance one way or another.

Cristian, Ontario, Canada: I think the future is worldwide free communication through VoIP. And I'm sure that's not so far.

You have company. Here at the conference in Athens, Niklas Zennstrom, who just sold his Skype VoIP company to eBay for about $4B, said this: “I think that in ten years, paying for a telephone call will seem like a very odd thing.”

Finally, you may recall that one of my examples of the wirelessly networked home was a telephone that would automatically mute the television when a call comes in. Reader Byron Raum of Beverly Hills, CA, gently corrects me: “Surely you meant to say that the telephone would pause the TiVo playing when the call comes in!”

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