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Wi-LAN
LAUNCHES LIBRA™ MX — INDUSTRY’S MOST AFFORDABLE AND HIGHEST
PERFORMANCE SOLUTION — WITH GUARANTEED PATH TO WiMAX
Offers Carriers, Service Providers and Enterprises WiMAX-Equivalent
Performance, Profitable ROI and Risk-Free Roadmap to WiMAX Compliance
CALGARY, Canada and CAMBRIDGE, U.K. – November 15, 2004 - Wi-LAN Inc.
(TSX:WIN), a global provider of market-leading broadband wireless
communications products and technologies and charter member of the
WiMAX Forum(1), announced the launch of Libra MX today at the Wireless
Broadband Forum in Cambridge, U.K. Libra MX is the industry’s first
WiMAX platform that meets the performance and throughput requirements
of today’s demanding point-to-point and point-to-multipoint broadband
applications while providing a guaranteed, economic and
straightforward migration path to WiMAX compliant networks. Based on
Wi-LAN’s patented W-OFDM technology – the foundation for WiMAX
Certified(1) products – Libra MX is a powerful and flexible solution,
including both base stations and subscriber units, for a wide variety
of broadband wireless applications.
Libra MX is Wi-LAN’s fourth-generation OFDM platform and provides a
stronger-than-ever business case for carriers, large service providers
and enterprises delivering solutions such as: urban Wi-Fi hot zones,
cellular backhaul, E1/T1 replacement, enterprise MTU/MDU and VoIP
applications. Libra MX will be widely available within sixty days,
with early commercial deployments rolling out in Asia, Europe, and the
African continent. In one early deployment, the Egyptian Ministry of
Communications and Information Technology is implementing a “Smart
Village” pilot project to study WiMAX technology prior to implementing
it on a broader scale.
“We selected Wi-LAN’s solution based on Wi-LAN’s history of providing
broadband wireless connectivity solutions worldwide,” said Dr. Khaled
Ismail, Senior Advisor to the Egyptian Ministry of Communications and
Information Technology. “Wi-LAN’s level of commitment to technical
support and Libra MX’s technical specifications, in addition to Wi-LAN’s
transparent path to WiMAX-compliant systems, helped make our choice
very clear.”
Customers who deploy Wi-LAN’s Libra MX system receive guaranteed
protection from Wi-LAN’s Continuity Program™. Libra MX networks are
guaranteed to be interoperable with future WiMAX compliant products,
protecting the investment in Libra MX and minimizing future network
and revenue disruption. Wi-LAN’s Continuity Program guarantees that
any Libra MX subscriber unit will operate side by side, in the same
network, the same cell and even the same sector with future WiMAX
compliant subscriber units, offering Wi-LAN customers a solid
migration path to WiMAX compliant systems, which are expected to be
available in mid-2005.
“Our customers have told us that, while many vendors are touting
claims that their gear is ‘pre-WiMAX’, what they really want to hear
is some straight talk and a solid guarantee that their investment in
pre-WiMAX equipment won’t be stranded when WiMAX compliant equipment
becomes available,” said Dr. Sayed-Amr El-Hamamsy, President and CEO
of Wi-LAN Inc. “Libra MX is the only available solution that uses the
same version of OFDM that is required for WiMAX certification, and it
is supported by Wi-LAN’s Continuity Program. The Continuity Program
guarantees WiMAX performance today and standard compliance and
interoperability tomorrow. Libra MX has an extremely modular and
flexible base station; when WiMAX compliant equipment is available our
customers will literally be able to just plug a WiMAX blade into the
base station chassis, without making costly infrastructure changes.”
“WiMAX is the real deal – it will provide high performance, security
and a path to mobility at an affordable point of entry,” said Wai Sing
Lee, Communications/IT industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “Because
Wi-LAN’s Libra MX has the same performance characteristics as WiMAX,
it enables customers to invest today in the industry’s best-performing
broadband wireless gear, and with Wi-LAN's Continuity Program they
know that they will have a smooth upgrade path to WiMAX as soon as
standardized equipment becomes available. Being assured that they can
easily and inexpensively upgrade to WiMAX in the future is basically
money in the bank for purchasers of Libra MX."
"WiMAX is likely to become a core component of tomorrow's
telecommunications network," said Eric Mantion, Senior Analyst with
In-Stat/MDR. "With its ability to provide high-speed data and natively
support VoIP services – both at home and on the go – it becomes an
attractive technology for companies that previously were not involved
with last mile connections, due to prohibitive costs. Because WiMAX is
an order of magnitude cheaper to deploy and run than other broadband
technologies, it has the potential to infiltrate more aspects of our
daily life than one would have ever imagined just a few years ago."
The initial release of Libra MX operates in the international licensed
3.5GHz frequency band, delivering unprecedented performance in
challenging Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) environments, and throughput of
288 Mbps to up to 12,000 users per cell, at a range of up to 30
kilometers.
The carrier-class design of Libra MX delivers carrier-class quality of
service (QoS) – enabling prioritized “triple-play” services: video,
data, and voice. The re-designed OFDM engine in Libra MX supports 4
times as many voice calls as other products on the market. Libra MX is
cPCI card-based and “hot-swappable”, meaning customers can easily add
sectors to increase capacity or redundancy, and add new functionality
– while keeping the network live. |
