Cisco, Motorola team up
mercurycenter.com
Cisco Systems Inc. of San Jose is expanding its wireless networking
portfolio, joining with Motorola to supply equipment for a new generation
of high-capacity wireless systems.
The two companies are expected to announce today SpectraPoint
Wireless, a jointly owned venture that will focus on equipping the new
wireless systems. To get SpectraPoint rolling, the two companies agreed to
purchase the fixed wireless unit of Bosch Telecom.
Don Listwin, executive vice president of Cisco, declined to reveal what the
two companies paid for the Richardson, Texas-based Bosch unit, which
has fewer than 200 employees. Motorola owns 81 percent of SpectraPoint and Cisco's share is 19 percent,
but Cisco will own Bosch's radio technology outright.
SpectraPoint will be competing with Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks and a handful of other companies
for contracts to build and equip the latest generation of wireless network, known as Local Multipoint
Distribution Service or LMDS. Such networks, most of which have yet to be built, can deliver extremely
high-speed Internet access and hundreds of phone lines wirelessly, using rooftop antennas and transmitters.
The initial customers for these systems are likely to be businesses in mid-size to large buildings or malls, where
the high equipment costs can be shared by multiple users. Listwin said those costs today are $10,000 to
$15,000 per site, although Cisco hopes to cut that amount in half.
Emily Cohen, a spokeswoman for Lucent Technologies, said Lucent has beaten Bosch steadily in
head-to-head competition for contracts over the past six months. But the biggest prize in the United States is
still up for grabs: NEXTLINK Communications Inc., which holds LMDS licenses in about 28 of the 30
largest U.S. markets. |
