GigaBeam gains from US city wireless build-out
GigaBeam, the Herndon, VA, manufacturer of gigabit-per-second wireless systems featuring compound semiconductor chips, has sold 11 WiFiber wireless fiber links to a company in the western US.
The customer, which is a wireless local exchange carrier, is using the WiFiber links to build a city-wide communication network that will initially provide voice and data services at 10-100 Mbit/s to local businesses.
"Our customer is taking advantage of WiFiber, instead of terrestrial fiber, to build out a metropolitan network at a fraction of the cost of an equivalent terrestrial fiber network," remarked Lou Slaughter, GigaBeam's chairman and CEO.
According to Slaughter, GigaBeam's wireless can deliver capital expenditure savings that allow service providers to offer significant discounts to their customers.
"Equally as important, services can be provisioned within days, compared to terrestrial fiber which can take months," he added.
GigaBeam's WiFiber products operate in the 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz spectral bands that have been authorized by the Federal Communications Commission for wireless point-to-point commercial use.
Current products operate at 1 Gbit/s, but the company plans to launch 2.7 GBit/s WiFiber later this year, and it is also developing a 10 Gbit/s version.
