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Wireless VOIP Phone To Be First xMax® Consumer Product
Wireless
VOIP Phone To Be First xMax® Consumer Product; Ultra Low-Cost
Deployment Opens New Grassroots Markets
Sarasota, Florida (USA); March 28, 2006—xG Technology®, Inc.
today announced its first consumer product will be a wireless
VOIP handset that will be available by the end of 2006. The
phones will work on low-cost, easily deployed xMax®
communications networks developed by the xG Technology
engineering team.
The
chip-based xMax technology is the lowest cost method yet
developed for deploying competitive wireless services. xMax
systems accomplish this by significantly increasing the range
of transmissions, but at much lower power levels. xG
Technology estimates that the cost of deployment will be 25
times less than a traditional wireless phone system. In other
words, small companies, institutions, and communities can
deploy wireless VOIP networks for thousands rather than
millions of dollars.
“In the
US, we plan to utilize a grassroots marketing campaign to roll
xMax out on a viral basis,’” said Rick Mooers, xG Technology’s
CEO and Board Chairman. “To envision this, consider how the
Internet Service Provider industry was originally built.
Companies and institutions put up ISP networks but so did very
small companies and individuals.”
“Our
business strategy is to meet an existing demand, not try to
create a demand. Mobile VOIP meets that requirement,” said
Roger Branton, xG Technology’s CFO and COO, noting the
dramatic increase in the wired VOIP industry. He further
explained that xG Technology has already secured the requisite
relationships with contract manufacturers to ensure that
scaling will not be an issue.
In order
to make the xMax phones more attractive to consumers, the
handsets will be dual-mode wireless. They will be equipped
with WiFi chips so that users will be able to roam to areas
not initially covered by the xMax networks. The handsets will
also have Ethernet jacks that will let users plug into
available data networks for fixed line VOIP calling.
In
addition to delivering wireless VOIP handsets and base
stations by the end of 2006, xG will be launching xMax
enterprise-grade solutions for select applications by the
beginning of the third quarter of this year.
Mooers
said one question that remains unanswered is whether the xMax
systems will be deployed first in the U.S. or overseas. “We’re
a U.S. company and would prefer to deploy the first systems
here but there has been significant international interest and
it may be more prudent to first enter the marketplace in
another country,” he said. |
