I have been told that I am too harsh on WiMax (and its obvious downsides), but here is some good news: Now there are plenty of options for (Baltimore) people to purchase a notebook that is equipped with Intel’s WiMax chip. Lenovo are Acer are the first notebook manufacturers to offer “4G” wireless broadband for a technology that is still somewhat blurry in terms of how its availability will expand over the next several months and years.

Opinion - It was about time. After months of uncertainty, Sprint’s Xohm unit was finally ready to roll out WiMax in Baltimore earlier this week. The network appears to be working as planned, but it seems that the promises made by the carrier are a bit exaggerated and there are many variables that need to be pinned down to enable consumers to make a decision whether they should subscribe to such a service or use 3G or wait for LTE instead. Right now, I believe there is very little that makes WiMax a compelling offer for the U.S. consumer. Of course, I invite you to disagree and join the discussion why WiMax is exactly what you were waiting or why you can live without it.

WiMax, often also described as 4G wireless broadband, is out of the gate. It is almost one year late, it is only available in the Baltimore region, it is - as expected – not cheap and the service offering is everything else than clear. The question is: Will consumers bite?