To the max

Pipex, which frequently has a significant lag between press releases being emailed out and posted to the site (thus no direct link at this point), has this morning released an update of progress in its 802.16-2004 trial with Airspan. Its drive tests have achieved stable non-line of sight connections in excess of 1km from the base station, and the company is talking about hitting 8Mbps by March of next year. Towards the end of the release there is a reminder of progress being made towards 802.16e compliant handsets. I'm sure there are a lot of kinks to be worked out along the way, but I wonder how many investors have factored in what is in effect a sixth UK mobile network (and maybe a seventh, if the prohibition of handoff is lifted?) coming into the picture just as Vodafone, T-Mobile and Orange hope to begin seeing the fruits of their marketing pushes?

Meanwhile, Disruptive Dean has an interesting take on the market dynamics behind the xG Technologies story.