IT Jobs
Proxim plans to buck the standards
Non-standard WiMax, and no hurry for 802.11n
By Peter Judge, Techworld | Techworld
Published: 12:54 GMT, 01 September 08
Proxim has come a long way. It was probably the best-known wireless LAN player at once stage. Now it'sfacing de-listing from the Nasdaq stock eschange.
Chief executive Pankaj Manglik has a plan. He's emphasising point-to-point links, and planning non-standard WiMax, and he thinkgs it's still too early to get into 802.11n Wi-Fi. And he also thinks Intel might be preparing to back down and accept LTE as an alternative to WiMax.
We spoke to him earlier this summer.
So how did you get to Proxim?
I left Aruba to start another company and sort of started another company. I was looking at different things, and Proxim came along. Everyone knows about Proxim, and there was a turnarond situation. I looked at all the assets that they had
When you are a start up you have no brand name - and Proxim is a good brand name. When you are a startup you have no channels - and Proxim has great channels. And when you are a startup you have no products - and Proxim has good products.
I thought, I can do this - it should be a walk in the park. Which it certainly isn't!
We have focussed on product development in a big way. If you take the last 18 months and the next six months, we will have upgraded our entire product line, across all product segments, with new products.
We divide our products into three areas. The first one is wireless LAN access, and that includes both indoor and outdoor wireless, and mesh. The second part of the business is point-to-multipoint (P2MP) which is fundamentally WiMax. The third part of the business is point-to-point, which includes our products for carrier backhaul. It also includes our millimetre wave products, that can deliver 1Gbit/s over 1km.
Among those, I'd say about half the revenue comes from the WiMax, and the other two are roughly even at 20 points each, and there's about ten points for service and that kind of stuff. About fifty percent of our business is in the US, 25 points in Europe, I'd say 15 points in Asia, and ten in Latin America.
Overall our business is fairly diversified - so we get to take a step back and look at general trends in the marketplace, and where we should invest.
.gif)
Add your commentComments