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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.
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