We remember when WiMAX was just a twinkle in a wireless engineer's eye, and now it's all ready for the big time, as the ITU officially approved the spec as part of the 3G standard today. That's doubly special since WiMAX is the first non-cellular tech to get approval as 3G, but with services like Sprint's Xohm blurring the line for consumers, we can see how it's easier to just lump it all together. Of course, Sprint confusingly says Xohm is "4G," but it looks like they may need to tone it down now that the ITU has spoken. Either way, the ITU's decisions usually get enacted by governments, which means carriers with 3G spectrum will soon be able to start building out WiMAX networks without additional regulations. It's so bittersweet when they grow up, isn't it?

[Via PhoneScoop]

If there's one thing that we'll never be satisfied with, it's finding out just how many nanoseconds we can shave off our download times from year to year, and thankfully, the IEEE seems to get that. While it has certainly taken its sweet time with 802.11n, the task force has already voted to make 100G the next Ethernet speed, and now it's pushing to make WiMAX implementations even quicker. Reportedly announced at 3GSM, the IEEE has began working on a new version of the 802.16 standard, dubbed 802.16m, which "could push data transfer speeds up to 1Gbps while maintaining backwards compatibility with existing WiMAX radios." Potentially more interesting than cheering for speed boosts is the group's outright assurance that this protocol will meet the ITU's requirements for 4G, insinuating that it should be the token choice for further 4G developments. Nevertheless, the increased bandwidth is supposedly needed due to convergence between VoIP and various forms of multimedia (IPTV, streaming video, digital downloads, etc.), and however true that may be, some skeptics are still understandably doubting the whole "backwards compatibility" aspect. Still, the IEEE hopes to have this together by "the end of 2009," but considering the team's less-than-stellar track record in the deadline department, we're not holding our collective breath.

[Via DailyWireless]

While LG's Chocolate assortment is growing with feature-packed additions at an alarming rate, there looks to be a WinMo-powered sugar daddy headed down the pike with WiMax ready to rock. We knew Samsung and LG were using this year's ITU Telecom World conference as a launching plugging point for a few snazzy announcements, but today brings about the unveiling of a Windows Mobile 5-packin' smartphone boasting LG's Chocolate touch, built-in WiMax, a 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreen, two-megapixel camera, microSD slot, and Bluetooth. The phone will reportedly also support CDMA and EV-DO, and should be released in South Korea real soon -- unfortunately, there's "no word" on whether this beauty will ever see the light of day on American soil, but one can hope.

[Via Slashphone]