There seems to be a lot of excitement around fixed wireless broadband and its new avatar, WiMAX. A few days after I posted my essay, The New York Times did two back-to-back stories on the technology and how it is helping spread broadband to the boonies. Today Pyramid Research has released a report which says…

* WiMAX will come to dominate the fixed wireless market by 2008.

* Intel, however might be too bullish about the market adoption of WiMAX. Pyramid says that Intel is assuming faster equipment deployment and adoption than we are, by about two years.

* Pyramid believes that Nextel might embrace WiMAX in early 2005. They are in the process of acquiring the necessary spectrum right now and WiMAX would give them a competitive advantage over other wireless carriers. “It would also be a huge win for Intel and its vendor partners, who we suspect would significantly subsidize and promote such a rollout,” says Pyramid analyst John Yunker and adds, “Ultimately, WiMAX is about delivering low-cost broadband wireless access. Regardless of which vendor comes out on top, it is the millions of people in rural and developing markets who stand to gain the most from WiMAX.”

bq.