Cisco-Motorola venture aims for Internet world without wires
New York Times
CHICAGO -- In what is being billed as the next giant step in the
Internet revolution, the Motorola Corp., the maker of wireless
communications products, and Cisco Systems Inc., which
provides Internet equipment, plan to form an alliance that would
build the world's largest wireless Internet system.
The project is the most ambitious effort yet to build a global
network that would enable businesses and consumers to have
high-speed Internet access to e-mail and faxes without the burden
of wires, cables or even walls.
The plan, which is expected to be announced Monday at a cellular
telephone conference in New Orleans, makes Motorola and Cisco
Systems the latest communications and networking giants to join
forces in an attempt to capitalize on the increasing popularity of the
Internet and the rapid growth of wireless communications
products.
Over the next four or five years, Motorola and Cisco say they plan
to invest more than $1 billion to create a system capable of
transmitting voice, data and video over existing cellular telephone
stations directly to wireless telephones, laptop computers and
other devices.
The system would create a new line of products for Motorola, a
new generation of wireless networking gear for Cisco and perhaps
even signal the convergence of several existing communications
products, like pagers, cellular telephones, televisions, radios and
computers.
The two companies also plan to open four joint research and
development centers, two in the United States and two abroad.
A critical piece of the puzzle, Motorola and Cisco say, is that the
wireless transmissions would be delivered using an Internet
Protocol platform that is compatible with all wireless formats.
Unlike analog or digital platforms, the companies say that the
Internet Protocol, or IP platform, will be able to deliver and bundle
voice, data and video feeds through cellular stations.
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