IEEE 802.20 working group suspended

The IEEE 802.20 working group has been temporarily suspended. Apparently, the chairman of the group had some special relation with Qualcomm. 802.20 was supposed to be the next big step in mobile broadband wireless access and a competitor to 802.16e. However, with this news, mobile WiMax (IEEE 802.16e) is bound to get a boost. As if that wasn't enough, this week, Sprint announced that it will be spending $3 billion over the next two years to develop its 4G networks using WiMax. Earlier this year Intel had announced that it would have WiMax cards for laptops ready by the end of 2006. The earlier plan had it scheduled somewhere in 2007. The confluence of these events is sure to give WiMax a big turbo thrust. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out. But, the stakes have just been raised by Sprint.