During celebrations to mark the internet's 35th birthday last year, Leonard Kleinrock, one of its founding fathers, lamented what his creation had yet to become.
Mr Kleinrock, who invented packet switching protocol, said that fixed-line broadband connections meant the internet was always available and always on, but users could still not wirelessly plug in any device at any location.
Progress towards this goal has come in fits and starts. Wi-fi hot spots at coffee shops, airports and hotels provide islands of speedy wireless access. GPRS devices enable pedestrian download rates for applications such as e-mail.
Third-generation (3G) networks once promised faster downloads but their actual speeds are more akin to dial-up access.
But this could soon change. Technologies such as WiMAX and high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) - along with several others waiting to come out of the lab, such as ultra-wideband - could usher in a new computing era, one that goes by several names.
Motorola describes it as an environment of 'seamless mobility' - the internet goes where you go, with users switching effortlessly between fixed and wireless networks.
IBM dubs it the 'pervasive media' era and expects music and entertainment to be available any time - no matter where you are - by 2010.