Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Bradenton, Fla., Becoming Center of Wireless Revolution

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 01 Sep 2003 23:44:59 -0400

Bradenton, Fla., Becoming Center of Wireless Revolution Source: The Bradenton
Herald (Bradenton, Fla.)
Publication date: 2003-08-30
Arrival time: 2003-08-31

Aug. 30--It was 1999 in rural Imperial, Neb., when wireless communications gurus
from Bradenton started attaching antennas to grain elevators and water towers in
an attempt to build a 10,000-square-foot, high-speed network in a place with a
population density of one person per square mile.

A company named Chase 3000 Inc. scraped together $700,000 through grants and
investors to build the system that linked thousands of small-town residents --
providing mind-blowing communication abilities among the townfolk.
Looking back now, that was at the zenith of a communications explosion that would
soon cool.

Today, governments, infrastructures, schools and businesses are using fixed,
wireless communication technology to send and receive information at breakneck
speeds. (Fixed, broadband wireless means someone is sending a signal from one
fixed antennae to another.) Two local tech companies with connections to that
improbably placed Nebraska network are working to stay on the forefront of what
some might think continues to be a wireless revolution -- Speedcom Wireless Corp.
in Lakewood Ranch and Global Wireless Solutions Inc. in Bradenton.

Both companies manufacture products that are sold worldwide. The four founding
members of Global Wireless are all former Speedcom employees. Speedcom is a
publicly traded company that employs about 60 people locally. Global Wireless is a
private corporation with nine employees in Bradenton.

Both Speedcom and Global Wireless offer similar goods and services, but Global is
willing to take on smaller projects than is Speedcom, which targets high-dollar
government or business contracts. Right now, the Federal Aviation Administration
is in the middle of a nine-month test of Speedcom Wireless Corp. technology at
Boston's Logan Airport designed to decrease the number of delayed flights
nationwide. Under testing is Speedcom's Wave Wireless Networking Division's
Lighting IP Camera System, a high-speed wireless link connecting a video
surveillance camera to the airport's air traffic control tower. The camera monitor
runaway lights that aid safe landings -- especially at night and in inclement
weather.

Speedcom's Wave Wireless broadband products are used in more than 80 countries by
public and private groups, Internet service providers, governments and educational
institutions. Global Wireless knows a little bit about lucrative contracts itself.
The company just recently secured a contract in West Africa for tens of millions
-- a nation with virtually no telecommunication infrastructure, said John Elliott,
Global Wireless Solutions' sales and business development manager. Elliott didn't
want to specify individual countries or prices for competitive reasons.

Also recently completed were projects in Madagascar, the Philippines and the
Virgin Islands. Global has a contract pending in Canada for 7,500 sites, Elliott
said. Global's target market is third-world countries and government
infrastructure.
One of Elliott's designs allows firefighters in Waukesha, Wis., to download
building schematics of the structure on fire from a computer in the fire truck
that's screaming to the site of the blaze. That technology helps firefighters
figure out the best way to tackle a particular fire and all of the ways in and out
of the building.

"If you know the physical traits inherent to wireless, you can do almost
anything," Elliott said.
Steve Smith, president and owner of Chase 3000 in Nebraska, had high praise for
Elliott's work in bringing broadband to the boonies. "The broadband technology has
made it possible for us to do things that before were impossible," Smith said.
"Now, there's maybe 5,000 other places doing what we're doing. It's just
exploded."

Many people think wireless technology is brand new. Many of the modern-day
applications are, but wireless technology has been around since World War II when
the U.S. government used wireless technology to communicate to and amongst
submarines. The advent of the Internet and its infusion into mainstream society in
developed, and some undeveloped, nations throughout the world has opened up an
infinite number of possibilities for wireless manufacturers and the products they
make.
Despite being on the front lines of a technological revolution, companies like
Speedcom have had their share of financial difficulties over the past few years.
Speedcom stock was trading for more than $13 per share in 2000. Shares now trade
for pennies. "Companies in the fixed broadband wireless space have had a tough
time," said Gil Sharell, Speedcom's investor relations manager. "Most have seen
more than a 90 percent decline. We're among those, just trading at fractions at
where they once traded three years ago."

What happened?

"During the go-go years -- the late '90s -- people were spending for telecom
equipment," Sharell said. "People were just buying technology, and tech company
stock was selling sometimes 30 to 50 times the revenue.
"Then, three years later, stockholders were dumping them as quickly as they
could."

The tech companies are slowly making a comeback, he said, and Speedcom officials
hope to be a part of that. In June, the wireless company reached a deal with
California-based wireless company P-COM Inc. In the deal, P-COM will acquire
Speedcom's assets if it successfully completes a recapitalization and get the
go-ahead from its shareholders.
That acquisition will enable Speedcom to pursue larger government and high-end
business contracts such as a deal the company is trying to close with the FAA,
Sharell said. Speedcom officials are hopeful that such big-money contracts could
pull them out of financial troubles.

Global Wireless is positioned to make more than $5 million next year -- just its
second year in operation. Company officials expect Global to one day be bigger
than Speedcom. "That's not bad for our second year in business," Elliott said of
next year's projected revenue. "It's going to be good for Manatee County because
there's a lot of people we're going to be hiring."
James Riggs, Global Wireless' chief operating officer, called Florida a
"technology corridor." A lot of the communication infrastructure in the state is
30 years old, he said. Atlanta, Miami, and Tampa all play a big role in the
telecommunication industry, and that has benefitted the Bradenton-Sarasota region,
he said.

"I think this area has a very strong ability to offer technology to the masses,"
Riggs said. "Wireless, I think, is going to be huge. Between us and Speedcom, I
think there's a lot of stuff going on around here.
"There's a lot of people in this area looking to use wireless."

http://www.bradenton.com

2003, The Bradenton Herald, Fla. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business
News.
SPWC,
Publication date: 2003-08-30

http://cnniw.yellowbrix.com/pages/cnniw/Story.nsp?story_id=41252250&ID=cnniw&scategory=Telecommunications%3AWireless&

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