Wifi Revolution

Convergence (News - Alert) is what most people call it, though there are other terms for the availability of broadband connectivity linking colleagues, families, and friends. That means, regardless of where they are or to what communications device they are using, they have access to communications and information and entertainment in a variety of formats. Anywhere you are, anything you want, at any time, on any device.

It’s more than a technology shift, however. It is, in fact, a lifestyle change. Just as email and the Internet caused a fundamental shift in the way we communicate, so, too, will the ability to access personal and business applications from anywhere, to do virtually anything on the road that you can do at home or in the office. Reflecting that true mobile broadband access effectively is an overhaul of the human operating system, NextWave Wireless calls the phenomenon the Living in Motion lifestyle.

To increase its ability to provide continuity of access, and to expand its services into the metro arena, NextWave has agreed to acquire GO Networks, developer of service provider WiFi solutions enabling the deployment of campus- and city-wide carrier class wireless systems.

With the acquisition, NextWave adds Go Networks’ carrier grade Metro Broadband Wireless (MBW) system to its offering. MBW is a scalable high performance WiFi (News - Alert) solution for delivering high bandwidth mobile voice, video, and data services using “xRF technology, a proprietary adaptive beam-forming antenna engine, and a self-organizing multi-frequency mesh architecture.” The technology is a natural complement to NextWave’s current WiMAX product set with which the company will be able to provide single-product solutions or combined WiFi/WiMAX offerings that will enhance the value of service providers’ wireless networks.

“After extensive field testing of several metro-scale WiFi network systems, we selected GO’s Metro Broadband Wireless system as the most competitive and cost-effective WiFi network solution for NextWave,” said Allen Salmasi, president and chief executive officer of NextWave Wireless.

According to the agreement, NextWave will pay some $13.3 million at closing with up to an additional $25.7 million in NextWave common stock, based on the next 18 months subsequent to closing, which is expected to occur sometime in Q1 2007. GO Networks will become a wholly owned subsidiary of NextWave Wireless.

To learn more about the wireless solutions available to extend the capabilities of your network, come to Fort Lauderdale later this month for Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO. From January 23-26, the vendors and developers of the wireless technologies that can benefit your business will be on hand to demonstrate their solutions, discuss trends in the IP Communications industry, and answer questions specifically related to your network.

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Erik Linask is Associate Editor of INTERNET TELEPHONY. Prior to joining TMC, he was Managing Editor at Global Custodian, an international securities services publication. To see more of his articles, please visit Erik Linask’s columnist page.

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