Sit-up and take note when the largest mobile operator conglomerate in the world says their long term evolution plans will consider WiMax over legacy GSM communications standards. Vodafone's entrance as the newest member of the WiMax forum is big chicken. Not only does it send a clear message to the mobile telecom community that they best keep up with the fast paced Internet, but it also lets the big Web know they will not have their lunch eaten.

In my mobile Location world in the U.S., WiMax presents new, unexplored, and challenging ways of managing and exposing location across a myriad of devices including phones, PCs, personal media players, personal navigation devices, and so on. We're boldly going where no one has gone before and it's the wild west all over again where there's no standardized way of working with Location. The challenges are fun challenges. More fun than say working within the GSM world fixation on secure user plane location [SUPL] standards as GPS rolls out in Europe finally. Vodafone's WiMax interest entrance makes me second guess the virtue of pursuing a GSM standard that may have a short life if Vodafone concentrates efforts elsewhere.

Intel, where do you think Location standards should live? Google, do you care?