XG Technology, a US start-up company has revealed recently that it has won its first infrastructure which means that this practically unheard of wireless broadband technology will achieve its first rollout.
For the past few years XG technology has occasionally appeared in the news and potential of this highly secretive company, which is selling itself as both an LTE/3G and WiMax rival, has left the industry divided in its opinions.
The creator of the technology is ham radio enthusiast Joe Bobier who has named his product xMax. The technology itself uses a single cycle modulation technique to offer speeds of up to 40Mbps downstream using just 1 watt of power and can cover an area of more than 15-20miles. Claims have also been made that the technology is able to use an unlicensed spectrum to do this.
The commercial viability of xMax is one area that experts are currently questioning. The other is whether it even complies with the known laws of physics, but with what little they know of the technology it is an answer they are reluctant to give.
With all this uncertainty the company does still have backers. Treco Group, a private conglomerate which has major holdings in finance, real estate and telecommunications is one of them. The group, which confirmed that it would be one if its first customers, has bought 4.4 percent shares in XG technology.
In a recently signed agreement to become an exclusive infrastructure partner for XG, subsidiary Treco International has agreed to deploy base stations throughout the US. An order was placed by Treco for 1000 base station as part of the agreement and may look at obtaining a further 4000 at a later date. The base stations would then be rented to territory partners for XG such as local telecom carrier and regional ISPs. The deployment of the xMax system in the southern Florida market is expected by XG to take place at some point in the next month and the hope is that other territories in the US with quickly follow suit although just VoIP services are initially expected. Early 2009 will then see the addition of modem and data services appearing.