I was hoping someone would run with the story. And you did say front page.
canoe.ca
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Thursday, August 20, 1998
LMCS goes into orbit
WIC Connexus and MaxLink place firm orders for $850 million of equipment
By BRENDA DALGLISH
Media Reporter The Financial Post
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Almost two years after their licences were awarded, Canada's two local multipoint communication systems (LMCS) companies yesterday announced equipment purchase orders worth at least $850 million over the next few years.
ÿWIC Connexus, wholly owned by WIC Western International Communications Ltd., said it had signed a deal to buy $450 million to $500 million worth of equipment from Newbridge Networks Corp. and Alcatel Network Systems Inc. over an unspecified period.
ÿMaxLink Communications Inc., a consortium led by Joel Bell, said it would buy $400 million from Newbridge over the next four years. By then, it should have service running in most of the 33 cities in which it was licensed to provide LMCS, said deputy chairman Bell. Local Multipoint Communications Systems
WIC CONNEXUS:
wholly owned by WIC, 33 markets including greater Toronto from Oshawa to Hamilton, Vancouver, Edmonton, Quebec City, Saint John, N.B.
MAXLINK:
partners including Joel Bell, Stephen Bronfman, Capital Comm. CDPQ Inc., Soci‚t‚ Gasbeau Inc. and US Wavelink Telecom. Inc. 33 markets including Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Winnipeg, London, Ont., Victoria, Regina.
ÿBoth companies said they were aiming to launch their commercial services in the first quarter of 1999. Connexus will debut first in Toronto followed by MaxLink in Ottawa.
ÿLMCS is a digital broadband wireless technology that can provide voice, video, data and high-speed Internet service using a grid of line-of-sight cells.
ÿ"It's conventional wireless telephone that has been turbocharged," said Bernard Herscovich, Newbridge's assistant vice-president of wireless.
ÿNewbridge and Alcatel were delighted with their first signed LMCS purchase orders.
ÿ"A lot of folks are looking to Canada to see what happens," said Allyson Sharp, Alcatel's chief of marketing and business development. "It's important for us to be there. You're ahead of the market here because you awarded licences two years ago."
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Initially, Connexus expects its target customers to be small and medium-sized businesses that need top quality communication services, but can't afford the most expensive communications options now available.
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MaxLink identified the same market, but also said it may appeal to some residential users, including those who want high-speed Internet service and want to connect home offices to businesses.
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The company will provide such services as local and long-distance telephone, high-speed Internet connections, video conferencing, telemedicine and long-distance learning opportunities, said Suzanne Scheuneman, vice-president of WIC Connexus.
ÿBut in the longer term, the technology's broadband capacity and high speed will encourage the development of new applications that could dramatically change communications, said Bell.
ÿ"My partner likes to use as the example that when [Thomas] Edison sold the idea of electricity to New York City he sold it as a way to light the streets," said Bell.
ÿ"Today, we wouldn't think of street lighting as the most important use of electricity but that's how it started. LMCS is going to be the same."
ÿLMCS will be able to offer better service, lower prices or some combination of the two to win customers, said both Scheuneman and Bell, who insisted their market tests have demonstrated that goal is readily achievable.
ÿAlthough LMCS is new technology, it is put together from building blocks of existing components, said Herscovich.
ÿThis means it is not quite as uncertain as some technology introductions, which have been fraught with difficulties, he said.
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