Many tech companies, like Intel (INTC) and Motorola (MOT), have loved WiMAX technology for years, but Cisco's (CSCO) executives, especially their Chief Development Officer, have publicly and frequently criticized WiMax. But now it looks like Cisco has seen the light.

Recently, Cisco confirmed the Year of WiMAX by acquiring a private supplier of mobile WiMAX equipment, Navini Networks, for $330 million. A Cisco spokesman downplayed the U.S. market and said: "We were hearing from a lot of customers in the emerging markets about their interest in WiMAX and how they were getting very serious about it. Through this acquisition, we are focused on delivering broadband wireless in emerging markets, such as India, China and Eastern Europe. In these countries, cell phone penetration is high, but broadband penetration is not. And that's largely because of the lack of infrastructure."

The excitement for 2008 is Fixed WiMAX for business and home connections. Every Fixed WiMAX equipment supplier is showing rapid growth, lots of trials, and lots of requests for quotes. Mobile WiMAX recently received approval from the International Telecommunication Union as a third-generation wireless technology. Motorola and Intel will have products for mobile WiMAX in the market sometime in 2008.

Intel will introduce processors with built-in WiMAX in the first few months of the year, and they will be in almost all laptops after midyear. In a conference call, Sprint Nextel (S) said that they are continuing to prepare for soft launches of WiMAX in the Baltimore, Washington and Chicago markets later this year. They have slowed down their capital spending on WiMAX and have not signed a final deal with Clearwire (CLWR) yet. But Clearwire is going ahead hammer and tongs, so I think it is fair to say that 2007 is the Year of Fixed WiMAX and 2008 is the Year of Mobile WiMAX.