Newbridge solidifies broadband wireless stance

Newbridge Networks' absorption of Stanford Telecommunications last week is another sign that the broadband wireless technology sector is becoming increasingly important for companies aspiring to be multiplatform suppliers.

Newbridge had been using Stanford in its broadband wireless scheme since it began pursuing the sector last year. The company ultimately decided that the market and Stanford's technology had developed to the point that an all-out acquisition made strategic and economic sense.

"You could easily consider this a strong consolidation move to lock up sources of supply," said Alan Lutz, president and chief operating officer of Newbridge.

The acquisition is an endorsement of Stanford's point-to-multipoint, time division multiple access (TDMA) platform with bandwidth allocation capabilities - a system most other broadband wireless equipment developers are pursuing.

"The biggest advantage of high-speed TDMA is network economics - the ability to statistically share traffic from the headend," said Conrad Lewis, executive vice president of Newbridge's access products group.

Newbridge's existing asynchronous transfer mode networking capabilities, with Stanford's radio technology, enables the combined company to present carriers with a complete network play (see figure).

"We believe we're 12 to 18 months ahead of the competition in terms of a true point-to-multipoint configuration," said Val Peline, president and CEO of Stanford. Stanford also has developments in multichannel multipoint distribution system technology that could prove important to Newbridge's strategy, Lewis said.