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Beijing seems to enjoy being in the news a lot.  The city is holding the third annual WiMAX Global Summit on September 18 and 19.  The goal of the summit is to discuss the current state of WiMAX in China, its viability for China, and to keep momentum going.  The Chinese government will issue the new WiMAX policy and an oh-so-exciting white paper at the summit as well.  There will be product demos, a lot of speakers and an Olympic tour just to keep things interesting.

For those of you not familiar with WiMAX (and with so many buzz words going around lately, I can’t blame you), think of it as Wi-Fi that can go for miles.  It uses large cell phone-like towers to transmit a wireless Internet signal.  It can be used for homes where ISPs normally wouldn’t want to run cables, on laptops, or even cell phones.  According to WiMAX.com, the technology has been put into 68 Russian cities.  Sprint recently implemented it into Baltimore, with Boston, Dallas and Philadelphia upcoming.

WiMAX seems like a great idea, and is something I would be able to get behind, especially if implemented on a large scale.  Being able to access the Internet with higher speeds than most wireless data plans would be very welcome.  I just don’t see it happening.  The technology has been available for quite some time, and though it is being implemented in some areas, it just does not seem to be enough.  I would love for WiMAX to go full scale, and provide broadband Internet access to those who can’t get it yet.  I see it as an embarrassment to ISPs that people I know still have to live with dial-up despite trying for broadband.  WiMAX should be able to solve that problem, and I hope it can succeed, I just doubt it will.

Read [WiMAX conference] More about how WiMAX works [HowStuffWorks]