ArrayComm's iBurst Recap
About a year ago, I looked at a batch of press releases out of ArrayComm regarding a new capital infusion, and the de-emphasis on iBurst wireless broadband technology. ArrayComm said, "At this point iBurst is our graduate student that's finished his PhD. We are now helping our other children." That, I said, sounded like nothing but spin, and I was rather harsh in my conclusion that the moves actually showed that ArrayComm was "preparing the casket for their iBurst". At the time, Steven Glapa, Director of Marketing for ArrayComm, commented vehemently to Techdirt that I had it all wrong and that iBurst was as vital as ever, and was poised to grow as a BWA winner. In the comments we argued a little, then I promised to recap the issue in 6 months to see if I should eat crow. So, a year later and 6 months late, here is my promised recap:Since a year ago when we looked at iBurst, Arraycomm has added new customers to their existing networks in Australia and South Africa. There is a new deployment in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and there is news of a planned network in Kenya. The ArrayComm deployments webpage says, "Three others are committed (in Europe and elsewhere in Africa) but not yet ready for public disclosure." Which sounds a lot like Mr. Glapa's comment a year ago: "more [commercial activity] is happening in both developed and developing markets than can at present be shared publicly". I imagine that he was referring to Baku.
Furthermore, a year ago we wrote: "On the other hand, we have felt for some time that the true value of ArrayComm's intellectual property lies in their smart antenna technology. We expect that (in due time) ArrayComm antenna solutions will figure in future versions of most wireless and cellular standards. Lastly, with the de-emphasis of iBurst, ArrayComm seems to be climbing on board the WiMAX wagon." Well, just in time for this annual recap, today ArrayComm and TI announced they are integrating Array's MIMO antenna technology with TI's DSP in a solution that would improve capacity for 802.16 WiMAX and WCDMA/HSDPA networks. Mr. Glapa, I suppose I should congratulate you on the progress of the smart antenna technology, you should admit we were right, and we can have coffee when you get back from Baku.
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