SOMA Networks Announces Expanded WiMAX Strategy at ITU World 2006
Leading Mobile WiMAX Company Brings Cost Effective Wireless Broadband System to Carriers in Asia
ITU World 2007 - HONG KONG – December 5, 2006 – SOMA Networks, Inc., a leading provider of Mobile WiMAX hardware and software technology, today unveiled its Asia Pacific strategy to extend availability of the FlexMAX™ Mobile WiMAX System portfolio throughout the region. Based on the IEEE 802.16e-2005 standard, SOMA Networks’ FlexMAX System offers superior technology performance and business case results to efficiently deliver carrier-grade, multimedia services over broadband wireless technology. This enables service providers targeting “digital divide” or emerging, rural, and competitive urban markets in areas such as China, India and South East Asia, to overcome technical, geographic and economic barriers that have been significant limitations in the past.
Until now, reaching the majority of residents in digital divide markets using traditional wire-line technologies have been notoriously cost prohibitive, particularly in underserved rural and rapidly growing urban markets. With the advent of new technology standards such as WiMAX, carriers have a new more cost-effective method by which to offer advanced broadband and multimedia services to their customers. SOMA’s FlexMAX System makes full use of the WiMAX standard, and offers important additional features such as: macro-cellular architecture that supports a ‘pay-as-you-grow’ business model, ‘plug-and-play’ subscriber terminals, and advanced multimedia services that can be customized by subscribers. These key features are essential to the success of the broadband services business case.
“The Mobile WiMAX Standard gives service providers the most modern broadband technology available, as well as building a significant ecosystem that is a key benefit of standardization,” said Yatish Pathak, CEO of SOMA Networks. “Our FlexMAX System Portfolio will continue to capitalize on standards, leading edge applications and a strong ecosystem of partners, many of whom are located in the Asia Pacific region, to enable our service provider customers the opportunity to deliver the highest quality broadband-to-the-home multimedia services.”
Through technology partnerships with leading Asian companies such as SANYO Electric and Zentek Technology Ltd., SOMA’s wireless system features the most cutting-edge developments available to provide the flexibility and speed to extend high bandwidth technology to communities that do not currently have broadband access. For example, the FlexMAX base station architecture supports multi-antenna processing technologies, including Space Time Coding (STC), Adaptive Antenna System (AAS) and Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MIMO). SOMA’s vision is to enable dynamic selection of the best multi-antenna processing technique on a user-by-user basis to maximize overall system performance. STC is a proven technique for high-speed mobile devices, while AAS is most valuable in long range broadband-to-the-home applications where large cells are needed. And MIMO adds the most value where signals are strong and multi-path propagation dominates, typically in urban applications. This built-in dynamic flexibility enables the unified network architecture to work extremely well in all environments by ensuring maximum throughput, even with gateway devices operating in mixed modes. With the SOMA System, carriers can offer high-speed, easy-to-use broadband service far more quickly and cost-efficiently than with other solutions.
SOMA takes a unique approach to the WiMAX market. The company excels in delivering advanced applications such as landline quality VoIP and high bandwidth applications like multi-megabyte data, fax, telemetry services, gaming and multimedia to residential and small business customers. Having been in the wireless broadband business since 1999, SOMA understands the technical and economic challenges faced by carriers serving digital divide markets, therefore SOMA developed proven wireless, end-to-end systems that can start small and scale quickly in a cost efficient manner. Ninety-nine percent of SOMA’s customers offer bundled service packages of VoIP and data - creating compelling, affordable service packages that attract and retain customers. SOMA’s compact consumer gateways package many computing technologies into one easy to install and use device - wireless router, VoIP box, and Internet access. This makes it an ideal solution for village kiosks in countries or regions introducing Internet or VoIP technologies.
SOMA has a strong Asian presence. Headquartered in the Silicon Valley in California, the company has sales offices in Singapore; Delhi, India, and in Toronto and Ottawa, Canada. As a private company, the lead investors are Temasek Holdings based in Singapore and Morgan Stanley Venture Partners, headquartered in the United States.
Visit SOMA Networks at ITU World 2006, in the WiMAX Forum booth #6005.02, Hall 6.
About SOMA Networks
SOMA Networks, a broadband wireless access market leader, enables communications providers to realize the fastest time to market, the highest average revenue per subscriber and shortest path to return on investment with: the SoftAir™ Wireless Multimedia Application System, the industry’s only converged all-IP multimedia software platform; and, the FlexMAX™ Mobile WiMAX System, including base stations and indoor, self-installable subscriber gateways. By combining the Mobile WiMAX (802.16e-2005) standards with advanced antenna technologies, converged all-IP architecture, distributed computing, and revenue-quality VoIP, SOMA’s end-to-end solutions provide unmatched quality of service, subscriber density, and cell coverage to deliver wireline performance over a broadband wireless infrastructure. Service providers worldwide have deployed SOMA Networks’ award winning end-to-end systems because of the superior business case, deployability, support for licensed spectrum bands ranging from 700 MHz - 3.5 GHz, multi-megabit data rates, superior voice quality, subscriber self-installation and service activation. A principal member of the WiMAX Forum™, SOMA Networks is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with offices in Ottawa, Toronto, Singapore and Delhi. For more information, please visit: http://www.somanetworks.com.
US Media Contact:
Adrienne Low
Public Relations
415.882.6524
alow@somanetworks.com
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