xG Technology has been featured in an article that appeared yesterday by TIm Conneally in BetaNews entitled "Incumbent Mentality Drives the Wireless Communications Industry to the CrisisPoint".
The article discusses the spectrum crunch problem and how it requires innovative approaches to make a meaningful impact. Such innovations, as we saw with LightSquared, can be met with with resistance when they disrupt someone else's business model.
The author discusses the idea of spectrum sharing. Similar to the way carriers offload their traffic to Wi-Fi networks, they could offload the traffic to each other. xG Technology advocates this solution because its wireless radios can find available free wireless channels intelligently on the fly, and incorporate interference mitigation technology when they connect for the best quality signal. When network traffic turns into a quality of service issue, the radio can sniff around for a better channel, even if it's on a competing network.
xG's Rick Rotondo is quoted in the article as saying,
"I think it's a misconception that carriers are trying to protect their cash flow. Really, it's the culture of doing business the way they've always done business. I don't think anybody would argue that their cash flow has suffered one bit by incorporating wi-fi into their networks. I would argue, rather, the opposite. I think people would have abandoned them a long time ago if all the traffic that now goes over wi-fi was also put over the cellular network. You think you have dropped calls and slow speeds now? Just imagine how it would be with double the traffic."
"It's not cash flow, it's 'We want to do things the way we've always done things,'" Rotondo continued, "I'm not just singling out carriers, that's typical incumbent mentality in any business. 'This has worked for us in the past, let's not change things, let's not get new competitors, let's not get new rules before we introduce new technology.'
As was the case with the United States automotive industry, an industry with strongly protective incumbents often has to be put on the brink of crisis to begin shifting business models to the new and different.
The complete article can be read at this link.
Daniel Carpini
Marketing Director
xG Technology, Inc.
Tags: cognitive radio, interference mitigation, spectrum, spectrum sharing, wireless spectrum