* More news from CTIA Wireless 2007
At last week’s CTIA Wireless 2007 show, we found two announcements of interest to service providers that are including wireless infrastructure and services into their enterprise portfolio. The first announcement comes from AT&T and Cisco which are working together to offer the enterprise a 3G wireless alternative to provide wireline service back-up.
AT&T will begin offering a Wireless WAN Connectivity Service in June 2007 through a co-sale arrangement with Cisco on a new Cisco 3G-Enabled Wireless WAN High-Speed WAN Interface Card (HWIC) for the Cisco Integrated Services Router (ISR). Customers will be able to configure their LANs to automatically switch over to the wireless back-up if their wireline services are interrupted; the service can also be used to add broadband capacity if their wireline service is over-subscribed.
Our analysis: While using wireless technology as a back-up to wireline services is nothing new, we think that using 3G will enhance the user experience and reduce the costs usually associated with using a secondary wireline carrier for alternative service connections.
The second announcement comes from Sonus which has signed an agreement to acquire Zynetix for approximately $13 million in cash and stock. While not a “big money” deal when compared to some other recent acquisitions in the telecom infrastructure space, we believe this acquisition speaks to the importance of bringing together a well-established softswitch supplier like Sonus into the world of GSM innovation and applications. According to the Sonus statement, the key benefit of Zynetix technology is that it “leverages existing pico- and femtocell base station technology to extend IP into the broadband access networks [and] … integrating Zynetix technology with Sonus’ IMS portfolio is a critical step in the development of Sonus’ wireless portfolio of 3G and GSM next generation solutions.”
If you’d like to read more about other CTIA highlights – including analysis and information on the cool handsets and consumer services announced at the show, click here.
