The recent announcement by On-Communications that it is moving its wholesale fixed wireless access network in London, Sheffield, Manchester, Leeds and Oxford over to WiMAX is one of the many signs that the technology has come of age. "The protocol is good enough and equipment stable enough for us to start integrating it into our existing network," explains On-Communications CEO Ian Roberts. "It's been, at times, quite uncomfortable for us because of the perception in some quarters that we were behind the market, when in our view we were ahead of it."

What is WiMAX? The consortium responsible for promoting it hasn't so much mixed its messages as cut them into strips, thrown them in the air and tried to make a press release out of where they fell. "People do get confused about the differences between fixed and mobile access," says Roberts. "It is unfortunate, and from a perspective of a potential customer we often find ourselves having to explain to people a lot of detail about the sort of WiMAX network we're building."

While roaming WiMAX is best left to the 3G operators, fixed WiMAX is a relatively mature technology now considered at least as stable as ADSL. It's best known for connecting rural areas of developing countries where there is no existing infrastructure. In the UK, though, with 99 per cent broadband coverage, WiMAX is finding its own niches. Roberts claims that the On-Communications deployment is perfect for ‘heavy lift' applications... uncontended, enterprise level connections which are most cost effective against cables in the 1-10Mbps SDSL range. He also sees a lot of opportunities for WiMAX as a failsafe option in the increasingly important area of contingency planning.

"We've built a genuinely diversely routed network without touching Openreach," he says. "Which makes us a superplay for resilient, assured back-up."

Back-up and overflow are also key selling points for one of the UK's other most notable WiMAX wholesalers, Freedom4. Originally part of the Pipex Group, Freedom4 is the only operator currently working within the licensed - and therefore regulated - radio spectrum. Although On-Communications' high frequency connections in the unlicensed spectrum offer versatility, installations are fixed and must be tested to guarantee SLAs. Freedom4, meanwhile, has guaranteed bandwidth over wide areas of Warwick, Milton Keynes and Manchester. It's a good solution for temporary installations, where a business that's planning to move premises in six months can simply plug its modem in to the new offices and expect it to work.

Brendan O'Rourke, the COO of Freedom4, claims that channel partners are finding success at all levels. At less than £200 a month, two or four meg symmetrical connections are proving their worth for small businesses with high bandwidth needs, while cheaper asymmetrical links are also finding their place. He said: "At the lower end of the business community there are many who only use their mobile phones and have a fixed line just for data. The cost of that is quite high, and a lot of our channels are offering voice services on top of our WiMAX connection to provide full capability."

O'Rourke even sees opportunities in the residential broadband market. "In Manchester, 18 per cent of homes don't have a fixed line, and it's extremely difficult for the student population or anyone in a multi-tenanted dwelling to get a BT contract. They're all looking for a wireless connection."

The arguments are convincing, and WiMAX is definitely finding its place as a versatile weapon within the reseller's armoury. "We have the ability to craft services on our network that no-one else will be doing exactly the same thing," added Roberts. "It's a great proposition to take to a large organisation that's looking for something different that's both feature rich and independent."

There are those who are still sceptical. Nortel, for example, recently announced it would be focusing resources on developing the competing mobile Internet technology, LTE, rather than WiMAX. But with companies now delivering working WiMAX solutions, full national roll-out within a couple of years is looking more likely.