Back in 2007, TechViewz published WiMAX: Wireless Highway to the Future.
At the time, the idea made sense. WiMAX promised broadband without waiting for fibre or DSL to reach every home. It was based on the IEEE 802.16 family of standards and was designed as a serious wireless alternative for last-mile broadband. (Wikipedia)
Malaysia was part of that story too. In 2007, spectrum was awarded for 2.3GHz broadband wireless access, and commercial WiMAX rollouts followed. P1 became one of the best-known examples, while Yes later built a nationwide WiMAX service before moving on to LTE. (studylib.net)
Then WiMAX mostly disappeared.
LTE won the broader mobile ecosystem. Phones, chipsets, operators and vendors increasingly lined up behind LTE, while major WiMAX networks were eventually shut down or migrated. In Malaysia, Yes ended its WiMAX service in 2019. (Wikipedia)
So was WiMAX a failed idea?
Not exactly.
What is interesting in 2026 is that one of its biggest ideas is very much alive: using wireless networks as an alternative to fixed broadband.
We just call it Fixed Wireless Access, or FWA, now.
Instead of WiMAX base stations and desktop modems, operators are using 4G and especially 5G to deliver home broadband through wireless connections. GSA reported in June 2026 that 542 operators across 180 countries and territories were offering FWA using LTE or 5G, with 274 operators already having launched 5G FWA services. (GSA)
The pitch sounds surprisingly familiar.
Why wait for fibre to be installed if a wireless connection can deliver broadband directly to your home?
That was one of the arguments for WiMAX nearly two decades ago.
The difference is that 5G arrived with something WiMAX struggled to achieve: a huge global mobile ecosystem already supporting the technology. Phones, network equipment, spectrum strategies and operator investments increasingly revolve around 5G rather than a separate broadband standard.
FWA is also finding the same types of use cases WiMAX was meant to solve: rural connectivity, locations where fibre is expensive, temporary installations and areas where wired broadband is simply inconvenient. (TechTarget)
So the old TechViewz headline was not completely wrong.
The wireless highway to the future did arrive.
It just was not called WiMAX.
Technology history is full of ideas that lose the standards battle but still predict where the industry is going.
WiMAX may be one of the better examples.