Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Nextel Extends WAN Inward

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 02:53:50 -0400

August 18, 2003
Nextel Extends WAN Inward
By  Carmen Nobel

Nextel Communications Inc. and RadioFrame Networks Inc. are preparing to launch a
set of products and services that improve in-building network coverage for
Nextel's wireless users.

The joint solution, to be announced in the next few weeks, is called Integrated
IDEN/WLAN because it lets users deploy a wireless LAN over an infrastructure that
supports a WAN.

As part of the package, Nextel will resell RadioFrame's RadioFrame Unit, a
hardware bay that houses as many as seven transceivers that improve radio
frequency coverage inside a building. The system supports Nextel's IDEN
(Integrated Digital Enhanced Network) and the 802.11b standard. Support is
forthcoming for GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) as well as for
802.11a and 802.11g, said officials at RadioFrame, in Bellevue, Wash. The
transceivers in the unit can be upgraded along with an enterprise's WLAN or a
carrier's WAN.

"We're giving our customers the chance to take advantage of one set
infrastructure," said Greg Santoro, vice president of Internet and wireless
services at Nextel, in Reston, Va. "As we come to further updates for our own
networks, that will get added into the RadioFrame network as an extension." Nextel
will also provide site survey and installation services, along with PBXes, WLAN
equipment, and voice and data services and applications.

While the solution improves handoff between WAN radio signals inside and outside a
building and improves WLAN signals, it does not hand off signals between a WAN and
a WLAN.
Meanwhile, in the next 30 days, RadioFrame plans to announce a partnership with a
major GSM operator in the United States, similar to the partnership with Nextel,
RadioFrame officials said.
Support for CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) is possible, but officials said
there are no immediate plans to team with a CDMA carrier. Observers say this may
be an error since RadioFrame is no longer the only in-building game in town. For
example, InnerWireless Inc. provides in-building coverage at Rockefeller Center,
in New York, in a partnership with Sprint PCS Group, a CDMA carrier.

"I've been a fan of RadioFrame for a long time," said Fran Rabuck, president of
Rabuck Associates, a consultancy in Philadelphia, and an eWEEK Corporate Partner.
"However, others are chasing them and have implementations that are broader across
various wireless carriers.  Not doing CDMA is a showstopper for me."

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1224332,00.asp

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/