"...That is one of several links that Santera and Navini have. Both had their genesis in Sancom, an Austin firm co-founded by Chen that built telecom technology aimed at the Chinese market. Santera was spun off from Sancom, and Navini is an offspring of another Sancom spinoff called Cwill Telecommunication Inc. Navini's technology, which the company says has already proven workable in China, would allow desktop computers, laptops or most any other computing device to secure to the Net quick wireless connections ranging anywhere from several hundred kilobytes to one megabyte per second. With a few exceptions, connectivity at those speeds is currently limited to machines with hardwire connections.
Guanghan Xu, Navini's president and chief technological officer, says users will simply plug a still-unnamed device about the size of a computer mouse into their machines. Data will be transmitted from a network of nearby "base stations," roughly akin to the devices used to broadcast cellular phone calls. Xu says a Navini base station is about the size of a computer monitor, is small enough to hang from a telephone pole and will cost much less than those used in cellular networks.
Xu, who co-founded Navini with Chen, says the company's technology will entirely bypass the networks of major phone carriers, enabling upstarts to offer cheaper service with easier installation. They will also be able to put up only as many base stations as they need, avoiding the mammoth costs of building nationwide networks.
Initially, the system won't compete with existing technologies for high-speed data transmission, such as digital subscriber lines or cable modems. Instead, it will probably be targeted to consumers, small businesses and telecommuters who don't have access to those technologies. If it proves popular enough, Navini's gear could eventually wind up going head-to-head with DSL and cable.
Since the technology's development is largely completed, Xu says final test versions should be out by the beginning of 2001, with a commercial release tentatively slated for the middle or end of next year. Xu, an associate professor of electrical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, formed Navini with Chen because the company's financial backers did not understand the Chinese market and wanted to aim the technology at the United States."
navini.com |
