CrunchGear's Matt Hickey reports that Microsoft has filed an application with the FCC for a wireless device that can be used to talk over the Internet. More specifically, the device will be used for "consumer broadband access and networking," and will operate over WiMax.

"It looks like MS is working on a mobile WiMax-enabled Zune Phone, which would have download speeds of up to 2 Mbps, fast enough for the Xbox-to-Zune streaming we've heard about, and fast enough for just about anything else the Zune Phone might be used for," Hickey writes.

Crediting a mysterious source, Hickey says the device is likely to be announced by March 17, with availability sometime in May. "Our source says that an iPhone competitor has been in the works for a while, and the idea of branding it as part of the Zune ecosystem, from the brown color through the interface, came as a recent decision as a response to Apple's iPhone," he writes.

The key difference between the Zune device and the Zune Phone, Hickey says, will be that you can share music with anyone on the network, not just with anyone in your immediate area. "You can be in New York and your friend can be in San Jose, and you can send him that Shins song you like," he writes.

Still, Engadget's Ryan Block isn't convinced.

More here from DailyTech ... and here from Broadband Reports.