Imagine wireless internet that will cover the whole city, and that future is near. Seattle is the first city to test the new Metropolitan area network (/me jeolous) of 802.16, aka WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access). T-Mobile will also offer a wimax service on trains from Brighton to London Victoria, marking it the first broadband service on the train.
WiMAX does not conflict with WiFi, but instead, it complements it. It relies mainly on spectrum in the 2GHz to 11GHz range, allows it to cover an area of radius of 31 miles, and transfer up to 70Mbit/s.
The WiMAX specification improves upon many of the limitations of the WiFi standard by providing increased bandwidth and stronger encryption. It also aims to provide connectivity to network endpoints without direct line of sight in some circumstances. The details of performance under non line of sight circumstances, however, are unclear, as they have yet to be demonstrated. (Wikipedia)
One of these in the middle of downtown Corvallis will allow everybody to have T1-equivelent access to internet in the entire Corvallis area. Four or five of these in Portland, will probably cover the entire Portland. I believe cellphone companies should take advantage of this new technology, implement it to their existing tower, and charge monthly fee like a cellphone.
hotness!