Otherwise known as IEEE standard 802.16a. A wireless technology similar to Wi-Fi but covers up to 30 miles instead of a couple of hundred feet with data rates many times higher with quality of services lacking in Wi-Fi for uninterrupted transmission of time- critical voice and video data. Significant role in enabling the last mile broadband wireless access in areas that are too remote or too difficult or too expensive to reach with wire or fiber.
Eventually, it will enable notebook computers and PDAs to connect directly to metropolitan- area networks (MANs) that provide geographically continuous wireless coverage.