The Federal Communications Commission has rejected a proposal for a free coast-to-coast wireless service.  The idea, which had been under consideration for four years, would have seen a no-cost, advertisement-supported, though fairly low- throughput wireless broadband service. Higher speeds would have been available on a for-pay basis.

A number of questions about the potential for the service had been raised, given it would have been markedly slower than service available through many Wi-Fi hotspots. xG’s Rick Rotundo, interviewed by IT+ Telecom News, was among those who doubted the plan’s viability, comparing it to “municipal wi-fi on steroids.”

The company sponsoring the plan would have received 20MHz of currently unused spectrum to deploy the service. In the end, the proposal ran counter to the growing emphasis on promoting more efficient use of existing spectrum assets (as seen recently with the FCC’s  recent white spaces vote) through opportunistic-use technologies such  as xMax.

Daniel Carpini
Marketing Director
xG Technology

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to speak at an operational meeting of the Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA). This is a trade association that represents companies offering security (alarm) monitoring systems through a central station. It also represents companies that provide services and products to the industry.

In addition to presenting to the audience, I had the chance to discuss topics that the security industry faces with the attendees. A major trend the industry is dealing with is that people have been abandoning home phone lines in favor of cellular. As a result, the industry is looking to wireless technologies to deliver services to its customers. The use of wireless alarm modules is expected to grow rapidly over the next several years, and is seen as a segment of the industry having excellent potential for growth. xG’s ability to deliver a secure, all-IP, high-bandwidth technology over unlicensed spectrum makes our xMax cognitive radio solution extremely interesting to the security market.

Next month I will be a panel speaker at another CSAA event, where I will participate in a panel discussion on The Future of Radio and Cellular Communications.

Chris Whiteley
Director of Business Development
xG Technology

xG Technology was prominently mentioned in an article by Enterprise VoIP Planet entitled “FCC’s White Space ruling: A Shot in the Arm for IP Communications.”

The article stated that the FCC ruling will likely spawn a whole generation of new wireless devices—as well as giving a green light to companies such as xG Technology that have been developing mobile wireless VoIP technologies that operate in unlicensed spectrum.

The article also included a quote from Craig Mathias, principal at the wireless and mobile advisory firm Farpoint Group.  He is particularly excited about the  benefits of cognitive radio – a cornerstone technology at xG – which portend benefits not only for white spaces use but also as a way of enhancing delivery of mobile services to other markets such as underserved rural areas, rapid deployment, emergency response and smart grid.

Daniel Carpini
Marketing Director
xG Technology

xG Technology was featured in an article that appears in The Register covering the FCC’s vote on the final rules for unlicensed access to the TV white spaces spectrum.

The article points out that having access to white spaces increases the capacity of unlicensed networks. xG’s cognitive radio technology can be applied to white spaces to combine them with other licensed and unlicensed bands, effectively increasing total system capacity and reliability.

Daniel Carpini
Marketing Director
xG Technology

The FCC voted today to open unused TV white spaces spectrum to mobile devices via a revision of the rules governing the deployment and operation of radio equipment in these newly available frequencies. This additional spectrum, coupled with a relaxation of white spaces rules, will open up substantial opportunities for xG’s xMax cognitive radio technology.

The revised FCC rules clear the way for innovative technologies such as xMax to deliverr new cost-effective fixed and mobile services to a broad range of markets, including consumer, enterprise, utility, telco, cable, public safety and government network operators.  During the meeting, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski quoted a Microsoft study that projects that white spaces use could generate $7 billion a year in new services and application value.

To read more about the FCC announcement as well as the implications for xG’s innovative wireless network solutions, click here.

xG Technology was featured in in a story that appeared Sept. 17 in Urgent Communications titled “xG Technology: Cognitive Radio is Real Today.”

According to the article, although the potential of cognitive radios has been discussed in the industry for years, xG has developed a system (xMax) that is commercially available today. Read the entire article here.

xG Technology is pleased to announce that industry veteran Scott Garlington has joined the company as its new Vice President of Engineering. Scott has a proven track record of success, having helped launch new products in the voice, data and wireless networking industry over the past 25 years.

As Vice President of the Engineering Group at xG, Scott will be responsible for overseeing product engineering processes, including design, development, commercialization and project management for the company’s product lines. Scott will work closely with xG co-founder and CTO Joseph Bobier to further the company’s implementation of new and existing innovations. Most recently, Scott was a senior executive at Motorola, where he helped shape Motorola’s product roadmap and strategy and establish the company as the industry leader in high-reliability standard based and purpose-built mesh networks. He has also held senior roles at several successful startup companies. For more information, read the full release here.

xG Technology is pleased to announce that Kenneth A. Hoffman, a recognized expert in the public utility industry, has joined the company’s Advisory Board.

Commenting on the announcement, Rick Mooers, CEO and Chairman of xG Technology said, “We are pleased to welcome Ken to the xG Advisory Board. We look forward to the invaluable counsel he can provide us regarding the public utility sector, which has the potential to be a highly strategic market for our xMax cognitive radio technology.”

For more information, read the full release here.

xG Technology will be exhibiting and conducting live demonstrations of its xMax cognitive radio network technology at the 2010 Wireless Infrastructure Show being held in Hollywood, FL Oct. 4-7.

The Wireless Infrastructure Show is the premier national trade show for the wireless infrastructure industry and brings together a cross section of companies in wireless telecommunications. The venue for the event is located a short distance from our research and development facility. We invite industry professionals who are attending the event to contact us if they would like arrange a visit to xG while in South Florida. xG will be exhibiting in booth #215 at the show.

Daniel Carpini
Marketing Director
xG Technology

The xG media tour made a stop in Denver, CO on Aug. 23. We were pleased to give briefings and demonstrations to the following wireless industry professionals: Lynnette Luna, editor of FierceBroadbandWireless  and FierceMobileIT and a contributing executive editor to FierceWireless; Tracy Ford, editor of RCR Wireless News and RCRWireless.com; and Nancee Ruzicka, Sr. Research Analyst with Stratecast (a Division of Frost & Sullivan).  There was a lot of interest in the strides xG has made in developing our cognitive radio network technology, as well as the broad potential of our solution to impact different vertical markets.  We also discussed our business model and  innovative financing approach.

Once again, being able to showcase our technology using our fully instrumented demonstration system went a long way toward giving the attendees a chance to hear xMax in action for themselves. Our xJammer device allowed them to “see” the cognitive capabilities of our system at work.

As a result of the briefing/demo, articles about xG were written in both RCR Wireless and Fierce BroadbandWireless.

Rick Rotondo
Vice President, Marketing
xG Technology