xG Technology, Telefonica Mexicoto pursue joint venture
Florida-based technology upstart xG Technology has signed an exclusive agreement with Telefonica Mexico (Pegaso PCS S.A. de C.V.) that could result in a joint venture to deploy a network based on xG Technology’s xMAX solution in Mexico.
Under the terms of the agreement, Telefonica Mexico — the Mexican arm of global telecom carrier Telefonica — has until late May to evaluate the xMAX system and reach a joint-venture arrangement with xG Technology, said xG Technology CEO Rick Mooers.
“We’re extremely happy,” Mooers said. “Our strategy of waiting until we deployed our first network and then holding discussions with the big guys is coming together perfectly.”
Several large companies have expressed an interest in buying or investing in xG Technology since it came out of stealth mode two years ago, Mooers said. However, with no field evidence that xMAX — a low-power, high-bandwidth solution purported to provide wide-area networking even in noisy unlicensed spectrum bands — would perform as advertised, large companies only made offers that undervalued the upstart company’s worth, Mooers said (MRT, September 2005).
But xG Technology’s completion of an internal beta trial of a mobile wireless voice-over-IP (VoIP) network and its ongoing deployment of a mobile VoIP network — scheduled to be operational during the middle of this month — for Florida-based ISP Far Reach Communications has changed that paradigm, as evidenced by the Telefonica Mexico arrangement, Mooers said.
“Now, we’ve leveled the playing field [with large technology and telecom players],” he said.
