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To: JohnG who wrote (44898)	10/15/1999 10:50:00 AM
From: JohnG	Respond to of 152472

Airspan Blurb JohnG AIRSPAN COMMUNICATIONS Wireless communications The Red Herring magazine September 1998 AIRSPAN COMMUNICATIONS Feltham, England Bypassing copper wire in the local loop. CEO Eric Stonestrom FOUNDED 1998 EMPLOYEES 100 PHONE 44/1-784-886-700 Last funding round: PROFITABLE? No DATE 1/98 SIZE ($M) 30.0 TYPE First TOTAL FUNDING RAISED ($M) 33.0 Airspan Communications is pulling the plug on copper local loops and offering fixed-wireless technology in its place. Airspan's technology is alleviating the pent-up demand for telephony services in the rural and suburban areas of more than 20 countries. And in its first year as an independent company--until January it was the fixed-wireless-access division of DSC Communications, which retains a 20 percent stake--Airspan will earn $20 million in revenues, estimates its CEO, Eric Stonestrom. Airspan's point-to-multipoint system uses a central radio site, located at a base station, to provide radio access circuits to subscriber terminals deployed at the end users' locations. Based on the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) standard and supporting speeds of up to 64 kbps, the technology is intended primarily to meet suppressed demand for low-cost, high-value basic telephony service in developing countries. And for existing service providers, it offers an alternative to copper that can help reduce the cost of universal service. Airspan sells its wireless local-loop equipment to incumbent communications service providers like British Telecom as well as to new operators like the African Communications Group (see "The Final Frontier"). In January Airspan raised a first round of $30 million from several U.S. venture capital firms, including Sevin Rosen Funds, InterWest Partners, Oak Investment Partners, Venrock Associates, Charles River Ventures, and SeaPoint Ventures, along with Star Ventures of Germany. The market for wireless local-loop equipment has been hampered by regulatory complications and spectrum allocation issues; consequently, it remains very small. However, research analysts and other communications equipment vendors expect the market to take off soon, reaching $4 billion by 2000. If Airspan can aggressively sell systems and support services that are comparable to the offerings of its larger competitors, it stands a good chance of making a healthy profit by serving the needs of communications-deficient countries throughout the world.