NextWeb Announces Gatespeed Broadband as Newest Sky Web Alliance Partner
biz.yahoo.com
Tuesday December 20, 8:00 am ET
First SkyWeb Partner in the San Francisco Bay Area Significantly Extends NextWeb Coverage in South Bay, Santa Cruz Areas
FREMONT, Calif., Dec. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- NextWeb, California's largest fixed-wireless Internet service provider for business, announced today that it has added fixed-wireless broadband company Gatespeed Broadband, Inc. (Gatespeed) as a member of the SkyWeb Alliance. The addition of Gatespeed -- the first SkyWeb Alliance partner from the San Francisco Bay Area -- expands NextWeb's ability to sell service in the South Bay and Santa Cruz areas.
Under the terms of the agreement, NextWeb and Gatespeed will offer each other capacity on their respective networks at wholesale rates and develop joint marketing and sales efforts for pre-WiMAX fixed-wireless services. Gatespeed is a privately owned fixed-wireless broadband company that owns and operates carrier-class networks across the San Francisco Bay Area. Working together, Gatespeed and NextWeb will be able to further penetrate the market for business broadband services in the Bay Area.
The SkyWeb Alliance is a network of fixed-wireless broadband providers that have joined together to expand their coverage areas. NextWeb's current coverage area encompasses more than 175 cities throughout California and Nevada serving over 3,000 enterprise customers. Gatespeed serves residential and business customers from Livermore to Santa Cruz, as well as north to Redwood City.
"We are pleased to join Nextweb in the widespread deployment of fixed-wireless broadband Internet service," said Dan Arra, CEO of Gatespeed Broadband, Inc. "Gatespeed has offered high speed Internet service since 1999 in the Bay Area, and by joining the SkyWeb Alliance we immediately increase our geographic coverage area and will soon leverage the improved performance of WiMax."
Gatespeed was a co-founder with NextWeb of the Broadband Access Network Coordination (BANC) group in the Bay Area, the nation's first cooperative organization devoted to proactive coordination of unlicensed-band fixed wireless services. Following the success of Bay Area BANC, additional such groups were formed in the Los Angeles and San Diego areas.
"The SkyWeb Alliance program has proven to be very successful in promoting customer growth," said Graham Barnes, CEO of NextWeb. "The program has evolved from a marketing and sales alliance program to an initiative that has had a great impact on our business. As pre-WiMAX strengthens its position as a true alternative to cable and DSL for high-speed Internet service, indirect sales are increasingly important to our continued success. We welcome Gatespeed, also a founding member of the Bay Area BANC group, as a new SkyWeb Alliance partner."
Other members of the SkyWeb Alliance include San Diego-based service providers RedWire and SkyRiver Communications, as well as Color Broadband and NextPhase Wireless in the Los Angeles area and West Coast Communications in the California Central Valley area. Other companies interested in joining the SkyWeb Alliance should visit www.skyweballiance.com for further information.
About Gatespeed
Gatespeed Broadband www.gatespeed.com is a worldwide integration service provider of wireless broadband solutions. Additionally, the company owns and operates an FCC licensed 100Mbps backbone in the San Francisco Bay and Santa Cruz Mountain Areas delivering broadband wireless Internet access to business and residential customers. Customer connections are provided using a variety of both licensed and license-free wireless equipment from industry leading equipment manufacturers including Terabeam Wireless, Proxim Wireless, and others.
About NextWeb
NextWeb, Inc. is California's largest fixed-wireless Internet service provider for business, providing high-speed service over its carrier-class pre-WiMAX network to 3,000 enterprise customers. The company has pioneered the largest VoIP over Wireless deployment of its kind. NextWeb was named number 104 on the 2005 Inc. 500 list, and also has been named a fast growth company by all three leading Bay Area business journals -- the second consecutive year the company has been so honored. NextWeb's service is available to over 200,000 business locations in more than 175 cities throughout California, including San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, and Orange County; as well as Las Vegas, Nevada. NextWeb is profitable and is backed by strategic investors including Asset Management Partners, Cedar Grove Investments, Kaiser Permanente, Monet Capital, Saints Capital, Sage Venture Partners and Sunsino Venture Group. Additional company information is available at www.nextweb.net.
On October 5, 2005 NextWeb announced it had signed a definitive agreement to merge with Covad Communications Group, Inc. (Amex: DVW), a leading national provider of integrated voice and data communications. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of NextWeb's stockholders.
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