MaxLink Communications Leads LMDS Industry with TDMA
Deployment from Newbridge Networks
www2.cdn-news.com
FEBRUARY 22, 1999
OTTAWA, ONTARIO--Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) Enhances
Spectrum Efficiency and Maxlink's Competitive Advantage
Newbridge Networks (NYSE: NN; TSE: NNC) today announced that
MaxLink Communications Inc. has begun the industry's first time
division multiple access (TDMA) deployment for Local Multipoint
Communication Systems (LMCS) networking (also known as Local
Multipoint Distribution Service or LMDS outside Canada). MaxLink,
licensed to provide competitive telecommunications services in 33
cities across Canada, including Montreal, Ottawa-Hull and Calgary,
has engaged in extensive field and marketing trials over the past
year and will begin commercial service in June, 1999.
TDMA enables the sharing of bandwidth among a large number of
customers, thereby promoting the efficient use of spectrum and
allowing MaxLink to cost-effectively address a large variety of
customer service requirements. The network carries 42 Mbit/s of
data per wireless channel, accommodating bursty traffic such as
Internet protocol (IP) and a full range of TDM-based services.
The award-winning broadband wireless technology from Newbridge
will enable MaxLink to provide affordable advanced
telecommunication services including telecommuting, high speed
local area network (LAN) interconnect, IP Virtual Private Networks
(VPNs), traditional and advanced telephony, videoconferencing,
video monitoring, telemedicine, tele-education/distance learning,
personal communications services (PCS) backbone, and residential multimedia.
"The addition of TDMA marks a milestone in MaxLink's commitment to
provide competitive, innovative telecommunications services across
Canada," said Joel Bell, Deputy Chairman, MaxLink. "This advanced
broadband wireless technology from Newbridge will enable MaxLink
to cost-effectively deliver a full range of telecommunications
services including new generations of high speed Internet access
and data services for business-critical and real-time voice, video
and data communications."
As currently deployed in the MaxLink network, the Newbridge
Broadband Wireless Access solution is a multiservices network
comprising base station and customer premise equipment. A base
station, consisting of the Siemens / Newbridge
MainStreetXpress(tm) 36170 Multiservices Switch and
point-to-multipoint transmitters and receivers, is the central
location that collects all traffic to and from customers within a
given wireless coverage area. It is also the linking point
between the customer and the backbone network. Customer premise
equipment includes transceivers and network interface units (NIUs)
which support a full range of services. The industry-leading
MainStreetXpress 46020 Network Manager handles all network
management requirements and provides billing, statistics and
management support.
"The addition of TDMA maximizes the competitive advantages of
MaxLink's point-to-multipoint broadband wireless network," said
Conrad Lewis, Executive Vice President, Access Products Group,
Newbridge Networks. "Our collaborative development efforts on
behalf of MaxLink have resulted in this global first which will be
carried forward in deployments of the Newbridge Broadband Wireless
Access solution in South America, Asia, Europe and the United States."
In January, 1999, the Newbridge(r) Broadband Wireless Solution
received the Data Communications HOT PRODUCTS award recognizing
the year's "best and brightest" products and services in the
networking industry. Calling the Newbridge solution a "Wireless
Wonder", Data Communications stated that the award recognizes
products and services that provide a key technological
differentiator that results in clear and quantifiable financial
benefits and sets them apart from the competition. This award
follows previous recognition of Newbridge leadership in broadband
wireless access technology by the International Engineering
Consortium (IEC), which presented Newbridge with the IEC
InfoVision Award in October, 1998.
MaxLink Communications Inc. is a consortium organized to develop
and operate new local telecommunications services. It is licensed
in Canada to provide a range of competitive voice and high speed
wireless services through the use of 28GHz radio frequencies. The
consortium members are: Joel Bell; Stephen R. Bronfman, through
Claridge (SRB) Inc.; Capital Communications CDPQ Inc.; Seymour
Epstein; James D. Meekison with Robert Bradshaw; Société Gasbeau;
and US Wavelink Telecommunications Inc.
Newbridge Networks designs, manufactures, markets and services
networking solutions to organizations in more than 100 countries.
The Company leverages its relationship with a growing family of
Newbridge Affiliate companies and strategic alliances with Siemens
and 3Com Corporation to deliver seamless, end-to-end solutions.
Newbridge customers include the world's 300 largest
telecommunications service providers and more than 10,000
corporations, government organizations and other institutions.
Founded in 1986, the Company employs more than 6,000 people on six
continents. News and information are available at www.newbridge.com.
Newbridge and logo are registered trademarks of Newbridge NetworksCorporation.
MainStreetXpress is a trademark used by the Siemens / Newbridge
alliance for comprehensive solutions in broadband communication.
No agency relationship, partnership, or joint ownership of a legal
entity is to be inferred or implied by the term alliance. |
