I have a fixed line because my accountant hasn't progressed beyond the fax. I hardly use it otherwise, but it came with the broadband deal.
Even Finnish grannies are switching to 'mummo-phones' - they look like the old fixed phones with big keys and a pick up handset, but they have gsm inside and no wires.
When WiMax arrives we can recover an enormous amount of valuable copper. You can't be me, I'm taken
But interactivity directly with base does require a more powerful emitter at your end. Or this will probably be accomplished by wifi cascading - meaning that WiFi stations are connected in a flexible network back to the base station. This is an existing technology.
This can work reasonably efficiently where downloading from the base is the main data traffic, and uploading to the base is much smaller.
The current promotion of WiMax focuses on 'last mile' access. Which means there will be a node covering a few hundred houses - just as currently optical runs up to your neighbourhood and then wires or cable bring the signal into the house = the last mile.
But I don't think WiMax base stations are going to be that expensive. And, as I've said before, they enable local peer-to-peer systems that can be independent of the Internet. Thus one of their unique and unprecedented effects IMO will be the relocalization (or denationalization) of communities. You can't be me, I'm taken
Though it probably does not offer the edge touch for your fingers.
