The Metricom Ricochet service is essentially a mobile connection to the Internet, and speeds in Metricom's next-generation product will reach 128 kbps. Third Base 3G systems complete the migration of cellular to a true broadband service. Note, again, these are peak throughput numbers, and represent traffic only from the base station to the mobile unit, as the channel is asymmetric. Nonetheless, this level of performance would eliminate the gap between fixed and wireless in all but a few applications. On the other hand, we have yet another set of alphabet-soup acronyms to deal with, and little hope of a single uniform technology across a single uniform set of frequencies worldwide.
More bandwidth means more users, or more capacity for data, or both.
And we can't rule out other technology entrants over time. The lack of inter-system client interoperability implied by the above is perhaps to be expected, given the rich history of cellular, global politics, and the established presence of several technologies. While broadband data services will be available in many parts of the world over the next five years, global roaming remains an issue that still needs to be resolved. Of course, there are still a lot of details to iron out as wide-area wireless goes broadband. While there is much excitement over the possibilities inherent in mobile broadband, this interest stems largely from wireless equipment manufacturers, who see a gold mine in the new technology.