Well, either WiMAX or LTE could become widespread in developed countries by 2011 - 2013, thats what I read in pre-meltdown reports (summer 2008 and earlier). No

Well, either WiMAX or LTE could become widespread in developed countries by 2011 - 2013, thats what I read in pre-meltdown reports (summer 2008 and earlier). Now it's probably going to take more time. I believe WiMAX will stay as a niche wireless broadband technology, even if Skype-based WiMAX phones appear, while LTE will be used mostly on cellphones/smartphoes/whatever since it has considerable support from the telco/gsm industry. To answer your question, I think the main factor holding down deployment of broadband mobile wireless networks is uncertainty wrt which standard will win - no one wants to invest millions into building a network that will be based on a technology that may never become popular (and you really want interoperability in such networks, like it is the case with GSM). Also, telcos are big oligopolies (simple economics explains why they are reluctant to change).