said by gaforces :

I'm a little disappointed in the range of the service from the towers, it's not even close to the 30 miles that was reported.
The hype hasn't matched the technology, so far.

said by en102 :

I _really_ don't think anyone's using omnidirectional for data communications. Its a waste of spectrum.
The main reason for trimming to a few miles vs. ~30miles is capacity. How many users can use WiMAX in any given area can use it, if you're going to spread a 70MHz beam over 30 miles, even in one sector. Backhauling is different direct point-to-point, with a narrow area would obviously give a much longer range.