A week after I penciled my column, WiMAX Isn’t the next WiFi, Intel is out spreading more WiMAX FUD. The Feature’s Carlo Longino, today points out that Intel’s vision has more holes than all the cheese in Switzerland.

As a part of the biggest hype blitz since trying to replace Wi-Fi with the Centrino brand, the company is saying the new big thing will make its way into laptops by 2006. An Intel product manager told reporters the company expects the take-up of WiMAX to grow more quickly than Wi-Fi. While it’s made for some good headlines, it’s a hollow statement, as well as one that’s unlikely to prove true.

Carlo and Mobile Pipeline’s David Haskin are not drinking the WiMAX kool aid and are reinforcing what I said last week. I hope more people understand that Intel is trying to spin all of us.

WiMAX requires service providers to set up commercial networks and provide end users with substantial customer premises equipment. Wi-Fi and WiMAX are totally different animals, one a local-area technology, the other wide-area, regardless of Intel spinning WiMAX as “the next Wi-Fi”.