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Metropolitan Wireless
Fiber |
GigaBeam Promotes Jay Lawrence
to VP Sales
Other Topics: North American
Wireless Networking Solutions,
Broadband Remote Controls
GigaBeam Corporation
October 2, 2006
Ton Wetmore Forms MetroNext, A
Boston WiLEC to Deploy Gigabeam's WiFIBER®
GigaBeam Takes Actions to Focus
on Sales, Improve Margins and Reduce Cash Burn
Herndon, VA -- GigaBeam Corporation (NASDAQ:GGBM) announced today that
it has promoted Jay Lawrence to the position of Vice President of Sales
for the Company. Jay Lawrence will be assuming the responsibility for
corporate wide sales which was held by Tom Wetmore. Jay Lawrence was
previously VP of National Sales for the Company. |
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Tom Wetmore has resigned
from the Company to lead MetroNext, Inc., a Boston area based WiLEC
wireless local exchange carrier he recently founded. MetroNext is a next
generation telecommunications carrier that plans to deploy GigaBeam’s
WiFiber® wireless fiber in metropolitan areas. MetroNext plans to
provide resilient high speed Ethernet communications data and content
services to business enterprises, governments and multiple dwelling
units, initially throughout the Boston metropolitan area. MetroNext’s
business is similar to other WiLECs using GigaBeam WiFiber, including
the previously announced WiLEC in the western United States which
continues to successfully penetrate and grow within its metropolitan
market.
The Company also announced today certain actions it is taking to reduce
its operating and cash expenditures which will positively impact margin
and cash burn. These actions include salary cuts of management
personnel, deferral of outside Director fees and reduction in personnel
headcount (both employees and contract personnel). These actions are
timely given the Company has successfully transitioned from product
development into predominately product sales and service support of
those sales.
Lou Slaughter, GigaBeam’s Chairman and CEO, said, “We are excited to
have Jay Lawrence step up to take over sales for the Company and for Tom
Wetmore in his new venture with MetroNext. Jay has proved to be an
excellent executive in sales for the Company and we believe he will
bring significant energy, ideas and leadership to our Company’s sales
efforts. Tom led GigaBeam Sales and Marketing from the Company’s
formation to its current world market leadership position in ultra
highspeed wireless communications. Tom’s company, MetroNext, will
benefit GigaBeam because it plans to build out its infrastructure using
GigaBeam’s WiFiber. We expect that Tom’s extensive experience with the
advantages of WiFiber to result in significant future deployment of
GigaBeam WiFiber links by MetroNext. We wish both Jay and Tom every
success in their respective roles.”
Lou Slaughter further stated, “We have taken steps to reduce
expenditures and cash burn which are timely given the current stage of
the Company’s development. To date, the primary focus of the Company has
been on intensive engineering resulting in rapid product development. We
have completed several generations of our 1.25 Gigabit-per-second series
product and are about to launch our 2.7 Gigabit-per second series
product. Whilst we will continue ongoing product development, it is now
timely to turn our resources towards building sales and sales support
and near term profitability. Accordingly, we have taken appropriate
actions consistent with this strategy which include salary cuts of
management personnel, deferral of outside Director fees and reduction in
personnel headcount (both employees and contract personnel). I continue
to be very confident that our WiFiber product will have a significant
impact on global telecommunications. We expect to report growth in our
national sales levels this past quarter and with the large number of
countries about to approve spectrum and technical rules for our
products, we are poised to take advantage of significant new
opportunities in international sales.”
GigaBeam WiFiber products operate in the 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz radio
spectrum bands. This portion of the radio frequency spectrum has been
authorized by the Federal Communications Commission for wireless
point-to-point commercial use. Use of these frequency bands for
commercial use was pioneered by GigaBeam’s founders.
GigaBeam’s technology, utilizing these large blocks of authorized
contiguous spectrum, enables multi- Gigabit-per-second communications
through use of Gigabit Ethernet and other standard protocols. The
current speed achieved by GigaBeam’s WiFiber G-1.25 product series is
full duplex at one Gigabit-per-second (equivalent to 647 T1 lines or
1,000 DSL connections) which supports GigE protocol. GigaBeam recently
announced its WiFiber G-2.7 series, to be released in Q4, 2006, which
will operate at 2.7 Gbps. The protocols to be supported by the G-2.7
product series include 2 x GigE (2 x 1 Gbps); OC-48 / STM-16 (2.488 Gbps);
SMPTE 292M (1.485 Gbps) and both 1 and 2 Gbps fiber channel. GigaBeam
also plans deployment of future products capable of 10
Gigabits-per-second utilizing either the 10 Gigabit Ethernet or OC-192
protocol standards.
GigaBeam’s WiFiber technology is similar to terrestrial fiber in terms
of speed and reliability for deployment in Metropolitan Area Networks
(MANS). However, WiFiber has a substantial advantage over terrestrial
fiber because WiFiber can be deployed in a day and costs less to deploy
than terrestrial fiber. Terrestrial fiber can take months to deploy and
also require significant regulatory and environmental approvals prior to
installation.
About GigaBeam Corporation
GigaBeam is a provider of high-performance wireless point-to-point
communications access solutions that operate in the licensed 71-76 GHz
and 81-86 GHz radio spectrum bands. GigaBeam equipment operates at
multi-gigabit-per-second speeds. GigaBeam Corporation headquarters is
located at 470 Springpark Place, Suite 900, Herndon, VA 20170. For more
information, visit www.gigabeam.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
Statements in this press release regarding GigaBeam's products,
services, capabilities, performance, opportunities, development and
business outlook that are forward-looking involve and are subject to
known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which
are beyond GigaBeam's control and difficult to predict, and could cause
actual results to differ materially from these anticipated, expressed or
forecasted in the forward-looking statements. Such risks and
uncertainties may include, but are not limited to: lack of operating
history, transitioning from a development company to an operating
company, difficulties in distinguishing GigaBeam's products and
services, ability to manufacture and deploy GigaBeam's products, lack of
or delay in market acceptance and fluctuations in customer demand,
dependence on a limited number of significant customers, reliance on
third party vendors and strategic partners, availability of raw
materials, subassemblies and components, ability to meet future capital
requirements on acceptable terms, continuing uncertainty in the
telecommunications industry and the global economy, intense competition
in the telecommunications equipment industry and resulting impact on
pricing and general financial performance, compliance with federal and
state regulatory requirements, timing, availability and success of new
technology and product introductions and the other factors discussed in
GigaBeam's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. |
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