In signs that WiMax is getting closer to reality for consumers, two providers -- Airspan Networks and Navini Networks -- this week announced products for laptops that they hope will make the wide area wireless technology more mainstream.

Both firms already have large commercial WiMax deployments spread around the world.

While Wi-Fi is still the predominant wireless network configuration, WiMax is expected to take off within the next few years. During Intel's annual developer conference in San Francisco, chief executive Paul Otellini estimated nearly 150 million people will be covered by WiMax next year. That number is expected to expand to 1.3 billion in 2012.

In anticipation of the rush, Navini unveiled its Surfer 1000, 2000, and 3000 Mobile WiMax 802.16e modems. Its 1000 modems, scheduled for shipment in the fourth quarter, will be available in 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz, 2.6 GHz, 3.4 GHz, and 3.5 GHz spectrum bands.

Surfer 2000 and 3000 Mobile WiMax devices by Navini are scheduled to ship in the first half of 2008 and will include a USB laptop device for use with Navini's beamforming-enabled WiMax network. WiMax is moving gradually through a series of certification levels called Waves and vendors are developing products in advance of certification levels with the idea of introducing software later.

"Most of Navini's customers plan to upgrade their networks to 802.16e over the next 12 months, largely through the use of over-the-air software upgrades," said vice president Sai Subramanian in a statement. "With the Surfer 1000, Navini's customers can immediately start converting their networks and experience significant cost and performance benefits. They can then introduce Surfer 2000 and Surfer 3000 devices as Wave 1 and Wave 2 certifications are completed."

One feature of Navini's new product lineup is a voice-enabled modem with VoIP client and RJ-11 twisted pair connections to a standard telephone as well as a standard Ethernet port.

At the same time, Airspan launched a Mobile WiMax client device family called MiMax that includes a USB 2.0 device "that turns any laptop into a high performance Mobile WiMax client." The MiMax USB can be deployed worldwide and supports all planned Wave 2 certification profiles from 2.3 GHz to 5.8 GHz.

"This capability enables service providers to offer roaming services across multiple WiMax networks regardless of the frequency band used," the firm stated.

Airspan also unveiled a MiMax finder device that enables users to detect the presence of WiMax networks.