A new beginning, DMC founder launches wireless startup

A new challenger to the burgeoning wireless access and interconnect market surfaced last week under the leadership of a team of seasoned wireless industry veterans.

The company, Wireless Inc., was formed by a team of Silicon Valley engineers led by William Gibson, the founder and former president and chief executive officer of Digital Microwave Corp. The company plans to develop equipment that can be used for cellular and personal communication services, wireless local loop, rural radio and local multipoint distribution service networks.

The digital microwave products Wireless plans to produce will employ a proprietary technology called Multi-Code Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum that was developed by Wi-LAN, one of the backers of the new venture. The technology, which has not yet been applied to the public network environment, provides interconnect equipment with a capacity boost, Gibson said.

"It gives more protection against interference and therefore gives you the ability to get more bandwidth using spread spectrum," he said. "There is tremendous pressure for higher speed wireless links in urban and suburban areas.

The new company's products will be designed for both point-to-point and point-to-multipoint environments and for operation in the unlicensed 2.4, 5.1 and 5.7 GHz bands. Wireless is confident that it has the potential to become a strength in the wireless access and interconnection market.

"The advantage is that it creates a new price point in the microwave arena," Gibson said. "We have a great opportunity to be a player in a greenfield.

Wireless has not yet announced other employees, but Gibson said there are about 14 people on board now, all of them industry veterans with established connections worldwide.

"These are senior people from telecom companies that are leaders in the market today," he said.

The company plans to debut its products in the winter, Gibson said. Some manufacturing will be done at Wireless headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., and some will be outsourced to Canadian manufacturer Japan Radio Corp.