Lucent to buy H-P's fixed wireless business
Tuesday February 17, 12:22 pm Eastern Time
MURRAY HILL, N.J., Feb 17 (Reuters) - Lucent Technologies Inc said Tuesday it will acquire Hewlett-Packard Co's (HWP - news) fixed wireless equipment unit and that it plans to launch its own business based on the microwave communications technology.
In a statement, Lucent said it will buy H-P's LMDS (local multipoint distribution service) Wireless Business and launch a new Wireless Broadband Networks (WBN) unit of its own in Milpitas, Calif.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
The LMDS business unit, currently part of H-P's Video Communications unit, allows data-intensive voice and video, even television signals, to be transmitted over the airwaves to locations within the line-of-sight of LMDS antennae.
Lucent's moves come a day before the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is set to begin auctions of the radio airwave spectrum that LMDS technology is designed to use. 139 firms have qualifed to bid, which the companies are expected to use to offer telephone, video and Internet services.
The technology allows wireless access to data networks at high speeds of up to 45 megabits per second, the equivalent of 30 times the speed of a heavy duty T1 office phone line or more than 1,500 times the speed of typical PC modems.
Market research firm Strategis Group estimates that the U.S. market for LMDS equipment will grow to at least $8 billion in the next ten years. |
