COMING OF AGE

You know a technology sector is coming into its own when developers start frantically looking for partners to bulk up for the competition. Last week at Supercomm '99 in Atlanta, it was broadband wireless vendors' turn.

The activity began before the show did, when Motorola and Cisco Systems announced Monday that they were purchasing the assets of Bosch Telecom and forming a new entity, SpectraPoint Wireless.

SpectraPoint will be 81% owned by Motorola and 19% owned by Cisco. It will be composed of the broadband wireless assets of Bosch, the networking capabilities of Cisco and the wireless development and deployment experience of Motorola-a potentially potent combination in a market sector that requires major equipment suppliers to have systems integration capabilities as well.

"If you don't have the resources to finance and integrate, you're not going to play in this market," said Tom McCabe, vice president of product management for SpectraPoint. The vendor will target the local multipoint distribution service market first and eventually develop lines for other frequency bands.

Even as Bosch was being recast, other vendors were finding partners that would fill in the gaps in their own broadband wireless strategies. Harris Corp. announced that it has struck a deal with Wavtrace that will give Harris a 19% stake in the start-up vendor and access to the time division duplexing (TDD) approach Wavtrace has been developing. The ability for Harris to include Wavtrace's products in its new StarBurst line of point-to-multipoint equipment-along with existing integration and network management functions of Harris-could quickly position the vendor as a major broadband wireless entity.

"Customers don't want to work with a young start-up-they want to work with a company with some depth," said Bob Stillerman, director of marketing for Harris. Harris is not ruling out making a further investment in Wavtrace, he said.

The deal is a clear endorsement of the nascent technology Wavtrace has developed and should help the smaller vendor in its ongoing development efforts. "We see it has a validation of TDD," said Bob Foster, founder and chief t echnology officer of Wavtrace. "Harris is a longtime radio technology company, and they have some existing frequency division duplexing products that will help us."

The deal could also trigger other large vendors to seek partners among the other vendors focusing on TDD, including Ensemble Communications, which branded its gear Adaptix last week and announced that it will be ready for testing in the third quarter.

Other broadband wireless vendors are seeking expansion by way of distribution deals. Wireless Inc. and Witcom announced a deal last week under which Wireless Inc. becomes a worldwide distributor of Witcom's radios for wireless Internet service providers and competitive local exchange carriers.

Supercomm also revealed signs of possible change in one carrier's equipment priorities. Advanced Radio Telecom announced that it will begin testing broadband wireless radio gear from Triton Network Systems as part of an Internet access trial with Silicon Valley businesses. The 38 GHz carrier has a supply and integration deal with Lucent Technologies for its operational markets.

"This has no impact on the markets we currently have in service, but it ultimately could in the future if this proves to be a more viable approach," said Ron Olexa, executive vice president and chief technology officer of ART.

A Lucent spokesman downplayed Olexa's comments, saying the Triton gear is complementary to what Lucent is providing. He also said there is no change in Lucent's OEM arrangement with radio manufacturer Netro. The test will last two to three months, after which ART will make a decision about deployment of the equipment in California and about potential changeouts in other regions.