August 11, 2005

Qualcomm Buys Flarion

By Nancy Gohring

Qualcomm is buying Flarion for $600 million in stock and cash: I have to admit, this comes as a total surprise to me. With Qualcomm’s track record, this is very good news for Flarion because Qualcomm already has a firm foot in the door of the wireless community. While Qualcomm continues to push CDMA, it’s become clear that the future is OFDM and with this acquisition Qualcomm gets a strong portfolio of OFDM technologies. With Qualcomm owning CDMA and Flarion, integrating the two networks is likely to be smooth and the promise of such a smooth integration could be intriguing to a company like Sprint that has a CDMA network and is looking for something to do with its 2.5 GHz spectrum.

I’ll be interested to hear analysis on how this acquisition may affect the WiMax movement. Flarion is not a member of the WiMax Forum, so this potentially solidly pits Qualcomm against the WiMax community. Actually, it crystallizes what Robert Syupta, an analyst at Maravedis, calls the “Clash of the titans:” a monumental power struggle between Intel and Qualcomm.

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July 08, 2005

Colorado WISP Acquires Two Other WISPs

By Nancy Gohring

WavMax said it is acquiring two wireless ISPs in Colorado: There seems to be a lot of consolidation going on in the wireless ISP market in the United States. Maybe with the potential of lower cost equipment in the future, due to the standardization of WiMax, some of these ISPs will be able to support larger businesses. US Wireless Online is one ISP that has made a lot of acquisitions. You can check out the list on the company Web site. MobilePro is another company that has acquired a lot of ISPs and a breeze through its press releases will give you an idea.

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March 30, 2005

airBand Acquires Accelacom

By Nancy Gohring

U.S. fixed wireless operator airBand acquired Accelacom: The acquisition offers airBand coverage of Baltimore. I’m a bit curious about what metric airBand uses to claim that it is the largest fixed wireless company in the U.S. It could be true but while the company Web site notes that it serves 28 markets, it seems to only list Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and Phoenix. The other 24 could be small communities around those metropolitan areas.

In the press release, airBand notes that it plans to make additional acquisitions in the future with the intent of expanding its coverage. airBand does boast investments from venture capital firms.

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February 14, 2005

WiMax Alters Analysis of Recent Telco Buys

By Nancy Gohring

This analysis of the buy vs. build question facing telcos includes a mention of how the potential of future wireless technologies may be affecting the value of long distance companies: The author argues that there’s a debate among telcos over whether to buy long distance businesses as an entrée into the enterprise market or use other technologies to target other high-growth market segments. WiMax and 3G are big unknowns at the moment but have the potential to generate significant revenues for operators that choose to deploy them to target new markets.

A Lehman Brothers analyst suggests that Verizon’s planned MCI acquisition means the company will deviate from its aggressive wireless strategy, which will put a damper on potential growth. It’s hard to say if the acquisition will actually affect Verizon’s wireless strategy. On a side note, Verizon Avenue has also been a user of broadband fixed wireless. It’s certainly possible that Verizon can contine to focus on aggressive growth in its mobile business, while pursuing other broadband wireless as well as enterprise opportunities.

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February 01, 2005

AT&T/SBC Deal Bad News for WiMax?

By Nancy Gohring

Om Malik wonders if the AT&T/SBC merger will be bad for WiMax: AT&T and Intel recently said they’d collaborate on developing chips. But now that AT&T is aligned with SBC, which has a large mobile network in Cingular, it’s not clear what might happen to the WiMax initiative at AT&T.

I think that the 3G and WiMax markets, especially the first version of WiMax, are very separate. But the mobile operators are notoriously protective of their space and often reluctant to try new initiatives—look how long it took most of them (except T-Mobile) to pursue Wi-Fi. If AT&T was going to be a WiMax proponent, it likely will be less of a cheerleader now.

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