A discussion is provided of options available for implementation of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16. When choosing an implementation, flexibility should be a primary consideration. The 802.16 standard covers data rates from about 1.5Mbits to 70Mbits over distances as long as 30 miles, with rates dropping as distances increase. The range of the 802.11 LAN standard is also extended, and higher data rates than 3G data services are supported. Applications that have been put forth for the 802.16 MAN technology include rural and last mile urban broadband connections, 802.11/Wi-Fi hotspot and cellular backhauls, high speed enterprise connectivity, and pico networks handling traffic in metropolitan areas. The standard will probably influence cellular and further the convergence of wireless data, voice, and video services. The WiMax Forum was created to deal with interoperability, but original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) still have to be circumspect in the their consideration of components and architectures chosen for RF subsystems, especially because successful RF deployments can differ among regions and applications. RF chipsets should be chosen that permit versatile configurations currently and support more integration in the future, so that products can be customized for different market needs in successive generations. Among topics covered are coping with spectrum choices, orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM), licensed as opposed to unlicensed, and architectural complexity.