News | May 8, 2008

Solectek Announces WiMAX 3.65 GHz System Optimized For The Wireless Internet Service Provider Market

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San Diego, CA - Solectek Corporation, a San Diego manufacturer of broadband and public safety wireless equipment, announced the addition of 3.65 GHz WiMAX base stations and subscriber terminals tailored for Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) and municipalities. The company also released a white paper titled "The U.S. WiMAX 3.65 GHz Opportunity: The History of the Band and How WISPs Can Register for FCC Approval."

"We are excited to announce what we believe is the easiest to deploy and most cost effective WiMAX 3.65 GHz system available," said Dr. Eric Lee, CEO for Solectek. "Our 3.65 platform was designed from the ground up for small to mid-size WISPs. Solectek's goal was to create an affordable and powerful system, yet not make the system so complicated that WISPs would need to hire network operations experts to install and even operate their networks. From our plug-and-play subscriber units to our user-friendly graphical user interface used to manage the network, our platform is perfect for the typical hands-on operator to install and manage entirely themselves. And that obviously has a bottom line positive impact on the ROI that WISPs need to realize, especially in rural areas."

Industry research firms agree that the market for 3.65 GHz is poised for growth.

"There has been strong interest on the part of carriers and vendors in the 3.65 GHz band since the FCC rulings," said Adlane Fellah, CEO and Founder of Maravedis, Inc. "The 3.65 GHz market enables manufacturers such as Solectek and other BWA vendors the opportunity to leverage much of their investment in 3.5 GHz products by introducing a slightly modified WiMAX platform for the U.S. and other markets where 3.5 cannot be deployed. The 3.65 GHz band can fill a void, especially in rural areas not served or under-served by other broadband services providers."

Monica Paolini of Senza Fili Consulting added: "The FCC's decision to use a non-exclusive shared use licensing scheme for the 3.65 GHz band, combined with a fast and affordable license registration process, has created a unique opportunity for small to mid-size service providers to expand their business cost effectively and to protect their investment."

Solectek's WiMAX Base Station & Indoor Controller include the following features:

  • Affordable subscriber units & integrated "all-in-one" base stations.
  • Flexible support for 3.5 and 7 MHz channel bandwidths.
  • A 4U rack-height chassis designed to support various Base Station designs from one to eight sectors. WISPs can mix and match cards or purchase pre-built, pre-tested common chassis configurations.
  • Uplink card used to aggregate data and power from the Base Station ASN gateway site and deliver it to Solectek's outdoor Base Station units.
  • GPS kit to synchronize multiple base stations.
  • SkyWay-MAX Manager which includes an easy-to-use graphical user interface application. In addition, Solectek's EMS application or Telnet/SSH CLI interface may be used.
  • Optional failover switching for optimum reliability and subscriber uptime.

Solectek's 3.65 GHz system competes with Alvarion, Redline Communications, and Airspan. Solectek's WiMAX base stations are made in the U.S.A. at the company's San Diego headquarters.

SOURCE: Solectek Corporation