Intel’s supposed plan to make WiMAX the WWAN standard is/was to make sure every new laptop ships with it, and hope that providers would decide to build out WiMAX rather than HSDPA/EVDO. WiMAX is classified by most as 4G. Unfortunately, it looks to me as if Intel has been late to the built-in game. The Sony laptop I bought last year came out of the box with a Sprint EVDO Rev. A card inside. The first round has definitely gone to EVDO (in the US). We’ll see if WiMAX, with its tighter standards, and massive Intel influence can secure the second, and future rounds.

Bryan … Wikipedia and Google are your friends.

Can someone possibly explain what WiMax is?

Yes, it could eventually supplant today’s 3G connections, but it will likely take several years to have the same footprint / coverage of today’s 3G networks. Bear in mind these costs aren’t the costs to the consumer either. You’ll likely see WiMax data cards priced like today’s 3G cards.

Is WIMAX expected to eliminate the need for a separate WWAN hardware? If so, the cost seems reasonable.

802.11g is compatible with 802.11b. Saying something is 802.11g compatible implies that it is extremely likely it can fall back to 802.11b.