Digital Microwave wins $12 million BWA contract from Atlantic Telecom Group

Broadband wireless access (BWA) provider Digital Microwave Corp. (DMC; San Jose, CA) has received a framework contract from Atlantic Telecom Group PLC, the UK-based European telecommunications group, for broadband fixed wireless access equipment. The agreement is for an estimated $12 million over the next 12 months, and orders have already been received for $4 million worth of 38 GHz and 26 GHz versions of the Altium product line.

Shipments of the orders have begun, with initial plans for more than 200 links. Atlantic Telecom incorporates a group of expanding companies in the UK's telecommunications and media industries. It is one of a new generation of British telecommunications companies licensed by the government to provide fixed telephone services throughout the UK, offering a digital telecommunications wireless local loop network system. It will use Altium to deliver 155 Mb/s wireless interconnection in its network to deliver voice and high-speed data services to its customers. The customers' traffic is passed through ATM switches and backhauled into the core network fiber-optic sites by Altium.

DMC, which will change its company name to DMC Stratex Networks in August, recently announced that the 38 GHz version of its wireless solution set received European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ESTI) approval for shipment into Europe.

Altium uses 128 QAM modulation to deliver 155 Mb/s wireless fiber-like capacity in 28 MHz of radio frequency bandwidth. This efficiency allows wireless-based service providers to dedicate less of their licensed spectrum for installed systems. Altium is available in the 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 18, 23, 24, 26, 28, 31, and 38 GHz radio frequency bands, so providers can now roll out the diverse wireless access applications customers need using one platform.

Edited by Ellen Jensen
Managing Editor, Wireless Networks Online