Netro buys Project Angel

Fixed-wireless equipment maker Netro has signed a deal to purchase AT&T Wireless’ Project Angel technology.

Under the terms of the agreement, Netro will pay $45.1 million in cash and stock in exchange for AT&T Wireless fixed-wireless development team, a license to intellectual property, equipment and software assets. AT&T Wireless is keeping the spectrum.

The purchase signals entrance into a new market for Netro, which previously concentrated on overseas urban areas. Now, the company says it will focus on next-generation, low-frequency, fixed-wireless access in emerging international markets with limited wireline infrastructures.

“This fills out Netro’s product offering on the low-end [frequencies],” said Kevin Dede, vice president and senior telecom analyst at Wells Fargo Securities. “Maybe they can translate that technology into different frequencies.”

Modifying Project Angel’s 1.9 GHz technology to operate at higher frequencies would open up the product to several foreign markets, where 3.5 GHz has already been dedicated to fixed-wireless services, Dede said.

For AT&T Wireless, the sale further distances it from fixed-wireless service, which it announced plans to abandon during its third quarter 2001 earnings call. The company is currently in the process of transitioning customers off Project Angel, said an AT&T Wireless spokesman.