Intel's Chairman of the Board, Craig Barrett, has used his opening keynote speech at 2008’s Intel Developer Forum (IDF) to offer another one of those increasingly over-optimistic predictions for WiMAX (802.16) technology.

Barrett claimed that WiMAX would "reach" 50 million people by the end of this year, which isn't unrealistic because he appeared to be talking more about coverage than customers. However, he also predicted that the wide-area broadband wireless technology would reach 1bn people by the end of 2011.

Sadly we've been hearing predictions like this from Intel for many years now and while there has been some movement, WiMAX has so far failed to establish itself in the UK and many other 'developed' markets. Instead Intel's prediction is being largely based on the technologies adoption by developing countries.