There are various roadmaps available to us.  For the initial concern of WirelessPerspectives we will focus on the Mobile / Cellular timeline.

Each cellular carrier has it's own unique roadmap of technologies and progression as they are rolled out.  When it comes to cellular though the technologies call into "Generations" of the technology. 

For Example:

Generation	Typical Definition	Technology Examples
1G	Began in the 1980's.  Voice and data were carriered over Analog networks.  Phones were big a bricks, simple, had poor quality and were easily intercepted.	AMPS, CDPD
2G	In the 1990's the second generation networks came out using digital encoding of voice communications.  Voice quality and securtiy were better as was the low data services which became more available. With the GSM players SMS was also introduced as a store and forward method for delivering short messages to devices.	PCS, CDMA, GSM, IDEN, TDMA
2.5G	This is fuzz area.  2.5G is a set of technologies which provide packet switched data and higher data rates than 2G but still not enough to be considered 3G.  For these you could expect speeds from 40-144kbps.	GPRS, I-Mode, 1xRTT, HSCSD
3G	3G is where we are today.  Carriers are starting to offer greater data rates as well as readily available advances services such as video calls, broadband data, TV service and Internet browsing. Overall you should expect speeds for 384kpbs moving and up to 2Mbit/s if you are stationary.	EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, W-CDMA, EVDO, CDMA2000