|
BitWave's Wireless Wonder
(Sun, The (Lowell, MA) (KRT)) Dec. 20--LOWELL, Mass. -- A cell phone isn't just a phone anymore -- it's a reflection of the user's personality, according to Russ Cyr, co-founder and chief marketing officer at BitWave Semiconductor.
And not long from now, there are going to be a lot of personalities out there, adds his colleague, co-founder and CEO Doug Shute. That's because about a billion -- that's billion, with a "b" -- cell phones will be sold worldwide by 2007.
"In five years, one in three people worldwide will have a cell phone," Cyr said.
Shute, Cyr and a third co-founder, Chief Technical Officer Geoff Dawe, formed BitWave in 2003 to address a logistics issue facing today's cell-phone users: The device is manufactured in such a way that it requires a separate transceiver, or "radio," to be installed for each feature -- voice, data, video, etc. -- to be available to consumers.
Furthermore, wireless carriers such as Verizon and Cingular operate on different cellular technologies, meaning that consumers who like the look of a certain type of phone, say one made by Motorola, but want the features of a carrier not used by that manufacturer, are essentially stuck.
"Carriers shouldn't dictate what features a consumer can have," Cyr said.
And if BitWave's technology catches on -- it's due to hit the market by mid-2007 -- they won't.
"We've proven that this works in the lab," Shute said during an interview at the company's Cross Point headquarters. "Now it's matter of getting it out into the field." BitWave emerged from stealth mode -- venture-capital talk for "operating under the radar screen" -- a few weeks back, announcing that it had landed $13 million in venture funding to help it develop its universal radio chips for cell phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants) using software-defined radio techniques. The aim is to reduce manufacturers' costs and enhance the functionality of cell phones by providing ubiquitous connections to wireless networks.
Investors include Techno Venture Management of Boston, E-Century Capital of McLean, Va., and Apex Venture of Chicago.
Cell phones today increasingly can do multiple things -- voice, data, video," said Cyr. "But manufacturers have to install multiple individual transceivers (also called radios) for each feature offered. What we have done is create one chip that allows for all of these features to be used at the consumer's discretion -- and it's fundamentally invisible to the consumer." BitWave scientists have determined a way to use software to modify the bandwidth of a transceiver in real time, Shute said. Other companies developing similar technologies include PrismTech of Burlington and Vanu Inc. of Cambridge.
BitWave expects to make field test versions of its chips next summer. "At that point, we would probably be looking to raise more (venture) funding," Shute said.
Founded in Andover, BitWave moved to Cross Point a year ago. It occupies 18,000 square feet there, and employs 40 -- with all but five being engineers.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO West, September 16-18, 2008. Los Angeles, California.
