April 14, 2008- Before very long WiMax may beat LTE as the most widely adopted technology in the mobile industry. WiMax stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access and is a telecommunications technology whose goal is to provide wireless data transfer options to users over long distances. Such data transfers are offered in various forms such as point to point links or mobile device access. The creators of WiMax have described the service as technology that enables the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access and is an alternative option to cable or DSL connections.

The previous leader, LTE, overtook UMTS, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System, as the leader in wireless data transfer. LTE, or Long Term Evolution, is a project under the Third Generation Partnership Project whose goal was to improve on UMTS standards, a goal which they have obviously accomplished. The goal of such connections is to improve the efficiency of users connections, lower costs, improve overall services, make use of new spectrum opportunities to reach more users with better service, and to better integrate with other already existing standards.

Globally, however GSM, or Global System for Mobile communications, is in the lead as the dominant cellular technology. GSM is the connection standard used for about 82% of mobile services, serving over 2 billion users in more than 212 countries. Because of its wide usage, international roaming is very common and easily accomplished via supporting mobile devices. GSM was the first to offer a low cost voice call service to users called the Short message service, or more commonly, text messaging.

Source: Zdnetasia.com