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Technology Stocks : MRV Communications (MRVC) opinions? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: hedgeclipper who wrote (41961)	3/26/2004 3:04:20 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42804

Hi Hedge, FSO, along with a number of millimeter alternatives, continues to interest me. I posted about one of the m-m's yesterday on the Gildertech forum. See below. As I return to a world of designing enterprise solutions (from a long stint in campus design & construction and project management), FSO and millimeter alternatives are looking more and more attractive. Indeed. Depending on distances, I now see them as suitable for both primary and backup facilities when proper levels of redundancy and route/path diversity are designed into the mix. I've lost track of MRV's candidates in this space. Which of their products do you or others here suggest that I look at? Frank frank@fttx.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE NEW FIXED WIRELESS by Ed Gubbins Telephony, Mar 22, 2004 telephonyonline.com In the telecom bubble, free-space optics technology was touted as an alternative to fiber for the multitudes of American buildings without access to glass. While FSO, limited somewhat by distance and weather, didn't make fiber obsolete, another newly available wireless technology is now being heralded as a fiber alternative. GigaBeam, a new equipment vendor that emerged from stealth mode this month, uses high-frequency millimeter-wave technology within the “E-band” spectrum to deliver very high-speed data. Three swaths of E-band spectrum — 71 to 76 GHz, 81 to 86 GHz and 92 to 95 GHz — were opened to commercial use last fall when the Federal Communications Commission released official rules governing their use after a great deal of urging from folks, including GigaBeam's founders. The newly available spectrum, the highest frequencies ever licensed by the FCC (mobile phones and Wi-Fi operate in single-digit gigahertz), is licensed as point-to-point links in three-dimensional space, making the number of potential licenses infinite. In fact, the links can even cross one another without interference. Within those links, users have 13,000 MHz to play with, allowing high-speed data transmission on the order of gigabits per second. GigaBeam, for example, offers two systems: a gigabit Ethernet link and a 2.5 Gb/s OC-48 link. Deployment takes only a few hours, making it speedier than fiber, and although GigaBeam isn't specific about price, Chairman, CEO and co-founder Lou Slaughter said his system is “a fraction of the cost of fiber.” Unlike FSO, which was sometimes susceptible to fog interference, these waves are vulnerable to rain, so the technology's performance varies among different regions of the country. And although the signal propagates through what Slaughter calls a “tight cone” that widens at an angle of only one degree, the signal starts out large enough — from an antenna that's a few feet wide — to preclude birds in flight from blocking the beam. Not much is known yet about the potential of this technology in the market. At least one other company, Hawaii's Loea Communications (a three-year-old subsidiary of FSO and millimeter-wave player Trex Enterprises) is pursuing the space. But one of the industry's most knowledgeable sources on the subject, Doug Lockie — a leader in developing emerging wireless technologies with multiple patents in the space and the founder of wireless chip-maker Endwave — is an ace in the hole for GigaBeam, serving as the start-up's chief technology officer. GigaBeam also hopes to differentiate itself through its carrier-grade performance, helped by its exclusive partnership with antenna-maker ThinKom Solutions. With ThinKom's exceptionally small antenna (a device Slaughter calls 90% efficient in a market where 40% to 50% efficiency is the norm), GigaBeam claims to be able to deliver 99.999% reliability on mile-long links in most areas of the country, with the exception of the Southeast, where GigaBeam promises such reliability over distances of 0.6 to 0.8 miles. With that kind of performance, office workers won't need to run wires down building risers from their desks to a PBX room, Slaughter said. Instead, they can point an antenna out their window and access voice and data servers that are several blocks away. “This has the chance to be very disruptive in the telecom space,” Slaughter said, echoing words that were used about FSO a few years back. GigaBeam is about to begin beta tests, Slaughter said, with commercial availability for service providers, enterprise and government clients alike slated for early in this year's third quarter — rain or shine ---------------------------------------------------------------------