Cisco Extends Broadband Fixed Wireless Leadership Through Addition Of New World Ecosystem Partners

"With the addition of Bechtel, Fluor, Getronics and Netro to the Ecosystem, our customers have the flexibility to choose among best-of-breed solutions," said Constantin Loudiadis, vice president and general manager of Cisco's Wireless Access Business Unit. "The broadband fixed wireless market is rapidly emerging, and Cisco has taken this opportunity to focus on meeting customer demands and getting solutions to market quickly. By teaming with industry leaders in systems integration and implementation, we are addressing the market needs of today."

Bechtel, Fluor and Getronics will integrate Cisco's MMDS broadband fixed wireless solutions and core infrastructure products to create New World wireless networks. Cisco's MMDS solutions implement Vector Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (VOFDM) in order to overcome line-of-sight issues common to microwave radio networks. These solutions currently are in trials with MCI WorldCom and Nucentrix.

In addition, Cisco has reached an agreement with Netro Corporation in which qualified Ecosystem system integration partners will have access to Netro's AirStar broadband wireless access system. Netro's leading millimeter-wave broadband wireless access equipment complements Cisco's Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and Internet Protocol (IP) core infrastructure solutions. The Netro AirStar system also extends Cisco's Ecosystem offerings to the 10GHz, 26GHz, 28GHz and 39GHz LMDS ranges, complementing Cisco's 2.5GHz MMDS and 5.7GHz UNII solutions for the US market.

As a significant element of the New World Ecosystem, the Cisco-Motorola alliance has led to key wireless opportunities and successes in the mobile wireless market including the first major deployment of integrated mobile data, voice and video services in an all IP-based cellular infrastructure. Cisco and Motorola have already successfully deployed the first live commercial General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) network at customers BT Cellnet and T-Mobil, and continue to drive other mobile wireless trials worldwide. Cisco and Motorola are also continuing the development of the Centres of Excellence that enable operators and service providers to experience the latest in IP-based networking technologies.

About the Cisco New World Ecosystem Partner Program

The Cisco New World Ecosystem is a community of technology partners enabling service providers to rapidly deploy innovative networking services. Cisco and its partners offer a wide range of solutions for Broadband Access, Packet Telephony, Voice Applications, OSS/BSS and Solution Integration/Deployment. Cisco New World Ecosystem partners support open, standards-based architectures and a shared commitment to interoperable, multi-vendor solutions.