Braun has grander vision for Harris Stratex than backhaul

Lastly, Braun said that Harris Stratex is in a unique middle-Tier position among its competitors. With annual revenues of $700 million, Harris Stratex is much larger and more stable than the specialty WiMax vendors in the field, and unlike those vendors it can supply customers more than just access equipment, Braun said. Conversely it is much smaller than the Tier I global suppliers who live and breathe by their Tier I operator contracts. Harris Stratex can be much more nimble and much more responsive to smaller carriers’ needs, Braun said.

“The market sees us in the middle, between the box movers—the Ceragons and DragonWaves—and the big wireless freighters—the NSNs, Ericssons and Alcatel-Lucents,” Braun said. “We not only have innovation, we have speed.”

While Harris Stratex has all of the infrastructure pieces in place to attack the North American WiMax market today, Braun said, the vendor is looking to add more to portfolio, focusing on some key areas such as applications and alternative energy technologies. The applications piece is already in the works. Harris Stratex is partnering with e-learning, telemedicine and distribution automation solutions providers in an effort to attack government and vertical markets customer with a unified front.

“If we go to a school district in rural America with a combined broadband access network and e-learning tool, we offer a much more compelling solution,” Braun said.

The alternative energy initiatives are still in the development phases, but Braun feels they’re very promising. Harris Stratex is investigating ways of taking cell sites either completely or partially off of the electricity grid using renewable, deep-charge batteries and solar panels as well as centralized power management systems.