There is a recurring scene in nearly every Star Trek episode where Captain Kirk asks Scotty to give him more power, and Scotty, with his heavy Highlander accent replies: "Captain, I’m gevin yeah all she’s got! Any mohrrr and I’m afrrraid she’ll blow."

Scotty’s famous and often-parodied line just about sums up recent realities about WiMAX.

The recent, much-anticipated IPO by Clearwire and its subsequent and sobering 20% decline only seems to validate that, at least for now, WiMAX gave us "all she had."

After so much hype about the undeniable advantages of WiMAX, all of a sudden people have come to realize that, at least domestically, WiMAX may not be the broadband bonanza it was hyped up to be. The blogosphere is full of questions about WiMAX’s technical, deployment and business challenges.

This is quite different from even a few weeks ago when the hype was almost deafening. Intel trumpeted its "disruptive characteristics" and committed more than $600 million to Clearwire’s previous round of funding (summer 2006). During that same round Motorola acquired Clearwire’s hardware business for $300 million. Turnaround hopefuls made WiMAX a central part of their growth imperatives. WiMAX hype, just like the leftover background radiation from the Big Bang, was omnipresent.

Disappointedly, I now see that the pendulum has already swung all the way to the other side. And despite Sprint’s recent announcement to expand its WiMAX coverage into a dozen additional markets, the WiMAX atmosphere is full of doom and gloom, and some even dare ask if there is a business case for WiMAX at all.

Obviously, this calls for the secretive WiMAX warriors to come out and save the day, so it’s a good thing I just sharpened my pen. Oh, and yes Intel, do join in.

As the co-founder, initial investor and creative force behind one of WiMAX's pioneers (Malibu Networks, 1999) I am, have been and always will be a diamond-card-carrying WiMAX supporter. Having grown up in the majestic mountains of Macedonia without any infrastructure I appreciate what it means to be a "have-not" and the global opportunity WiMAX brings to the developing world.

Domestically, our simple business plan called for addressing un-served and underserved markets (translation: second- and third-tier cities like Fresno or Bakersfield, Calif.) and internationally, the developing world (translation: Macedonia).