As I’m sure many of you saw, last week Intel said it will begin shipping its new Centrino 2.0 (Montevina) mobile chip for laptops. You might ask, why does Jeff care about this? Because the new chip will have WiMAX capabilities integrated later this year, along with Wi-Fi. For those of you not well versed in the chipset market, Intel’s Centrino line is THE chip used in laptops from the major players (Apple, Dell, etc.)

This means that soon laptops coming from these manufactures will be WiMAX compatible. In fact, according to a FierceBroadbandWireless article by Lynette Luna, “Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo and Toshiba are reportedly planning to launch new notebooks concurrently with the release of Centrino 2.” IDC analyst Brian Ma, called this “good fuel to help the industry along.” I couldn’t agree more.

This announcement brings us one big step closer to having WiMAX-enabled devices to operate on Sprint and Clearwire’s consumer networks. WiMAX is clearly continuing its march forward. With Sprint/Clearwire already on board, Intel’s continued support, and in turn the support of most major computer manufacturers, it’s not hard to see all the pieces falling into place.

All that remains at this point is the client base. Towerstream’s WiMAX is operational in over 10 major cities, serving businesses with fast, cheap wireless broadband. When Sprint/Clearwire launch their WiMAX service in Baltimore this September, followed by Chicago and Washington D.C in Q4 2008, there will be over 4 million individuals exposed to functional, mobile WiMAX.

I know WiMAX continues to have a lot of nay-sayers – as is always the case when innovative technologies come to the market - but I’d say this announcement scores one for the WiMAX team.