None of which makes Wifi anything more than a LAN technology. You weren't using one logical network over a wide area. You were jumping from one small network-island to another small network-island. It would be no different from, if you had to use wires, plugging in at the cafe, unplugging and going to the library to plug in, etc. You have to literally change networks for each destination.


WiMAX, on the otherhand, is not a LAN in any sense (personal nor corporate nor public). It is one logical network over an entire area (for now, metropolitan areas, but in the long term it should develop into national areas). It is definitely not limited to being a "Local Area Network". It is more like a cell phone, where you are using the same logical network no matter which service island you're in, and the service islands give you seemless transitions.

That's not merely a technical distinction. It's a user visible distinction. Unless your city has deployed city-wide WIFI, you shouldn't expect to be in the middle of a huge park and get a nice Wifi signal. But you should expect that with WiMAX, once it's fully deployed. You should, eventually, expect WiMAX to give you the same coverage you get with GSM or CDMA.

The fact that so many phones have radios for BOTH should give you a perfect example of how Wifi is not a WWAN -- if it was, then the iPhone wouldn't need EDGE -- it could use GSM for voice, and Wifi for data, everywhere. But that's not the case. The iPhone uses Wifi where it can find it, and then it uses EDGE for places where it can't find Wifi. WiMAX, however, is supposed to eventually give you Wifi speed with EDGE coverage. Thus, Wifi is not in the same class as WiMAX. Wifi is for highly localized service (within a small building area), where WiMAX is for Wide Area service.