There are two local WiMAX stories going around right now. First, Intel has apparently invested an unspecified amount of cash in Speakeasy. Presumably Intel is working on WiMAX hardware and they want Speakeasy to deploy it.

Second, Adaptix has come out of stealth. They’re based a mile or two from my house, and they’re apparently doing software-defined WiMAX. Pity they’re a hardware company, not an ISP, or I’d be all over them looking for a test connection.

WiMAX, also known as 802.16, is one of two contenders for licensed fixed-wireless service. The other contender is 802.20, which Nextel is testing in North Carolina. As I understand it, 802.20 is designed to handle Doppler correction from the beginning, while 802.16 is planning on retrofitting it at some point in the future. That means that 802.20 is more suitable for cellphone-like use, although it lags about a year behind 802.16 in the market.