A Cold Compress for Capex

When one is planning to visit a facility that uses cryogenic freezing to make base stations immune to interference, it seems logical that one arrives prepared to engage in climate-related repartee. When the visitor hails from Chicago — which just endured one of the coldest winters in recent memory — and when the facility resides in sunny Santa Barbara, Calif., the need for weather witticisms and jaunty juxtapositions seems all but mandatory.

Such was the situation upon my arrival last month at the headquarters of Superconductor Technologies Inc., a developer of superconducting products designed to enhance base station performance. Given that a fellow editorial staffer beat me to the wordplay punch (damn you, O'Shea!) when he penned “Mr. Freeze and His Cool Intentions,” a profile of STI CEO Peter Thomas that ran in this magazine last year, the idea of greeting said CEO with “Mr. Freeze, I presume?” seemed derivative. “Cold enough for ya?” seemed pedestrian, and “Some weather we're having, huh?” seemed downright stupid. So I settled for one of the old standbys: “What effect has carrier capex decline had on wireless carriers' receptiveness to deploying cryogenic receiver front-end systems?”

Quite a good one, as it turns out. Thomas said STI's business has doubled in the midst of the aforementioned capex decline, presumably because STI's products effectively reduce carriers' need to deploy more base stations. Furthermore, Thomas said, the economic environment has made wireless carriers more open-minded about considering solutions formerly considered obscure — and expensive.

“The only fortunate thing about capital markets getting tighter is that [carriers are] more willing to consider alternative technologies,” he said. “We're no longer some outrageous, strange technology.”

Thomas thinks a new market segment is developing around improving the quality of wireless signals — especially with wireless considered a viable landline alternative. “Competing with wireline changes the whole idea of wireless signal quality,” he said.

To get the lowdown on everything about superconducting technology — the technological details about filtering and noise elimination, the cryogenic freezing process, etc. — you'll just have to go back and read Dan O'Shea's article (WR, April 2003, page 24). Suffice it to say that STI's products are now helping improve the network transmission quality for 28 mobile carriers in the U.S. “We improve the selectivity and the sensitivity of the receiver,” Thomas said. “That's what improves the data throughput.”

The only other thing you'll get from me is first-hand information about the secret chamber where they're storing the cryogenically frozen body of Walt Disney (oops, never mind — I think that last part was supposed to be under embargo).