"Try to find something in the 5.8GHz band. Forget it. It's mostly just written about in the papers," said Michail Bletsas, chief connectivity officer at OLPC, a non-profit group that is trying to bring $100 laptops to underprivileged children around the world.

Bletsas made his comments on the sidelines of a regional WiMAX conference in Taiwan, where local system vendors are showing off WiMAX prototype equipment, ranging from base stations and indoor routers to PCMCIA cards and embedded platforms, such as smartphones. Most of the equipment at the show runs in licensed bands, including 2.3GHz, 2.5/2.6GHz, 3.4/3.5GHz and 3.6GHz.

Bletsas said he wishes the industry would spend more time on developing equipment for the unlicensed bands, a notion that was seconded by officials from some developing countries, such as Pakistan.

But at least a few system vendors believe focusing on the licensed bands will result in the kind of innovation and rapid price erosion that Bletsas wants. It really depends on the application. Developing in the 5.8GHz would require more base stations to cover an area, and that would drive up infrastructure costs, noted Liu Wei-tu, a product manager at Tecom Co., Ltd. "That may work well in a limited, vertical application," he said.

But Tecom thinks the licensed bands are far more likely to the large, commercial volumes that system vendors need. "That will drive down the price much faster than what will happen in the unlicensed spectrum," he said.

As for innovation, Bletsas may have a point. "Right now, it is being targeted at big operators and spectrum regulation is a total mess. For innovation, we need a bottom-up approach, and right now WiMAX is moving in the opposite direction. Unless things change, I don't see a very bright future for WiMAX," he said.