Cmpe 472

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Cmpe 472

• Case II in E-commerce Architecture

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WaveRider Communications Inc.

• Founded in 1997
• To become the leader in the global wireless
  information technology by developing, selling and
  supporting products that enabled wireless
  internet service providers
• Raised 27.5 mm for RD
• Signed agreements and installations in over 30
  countries
• Over 100 employees

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WaveRider Communications Inc.

• Did not have enough resources to develop business
  opportunities
• Had partnerships with resellers and technology
  installers
• Launched two products
• NCL
• LMS

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WaveRider Communications Inc.

• NCL 135
• First product
• A wireless high speed router that provided
  secure, reliable connections to corporate
  networks
• Designed to replace ISDN lines onsite
• If the customer had two offices and one of the
  had a LAN with digital subscriber line (DSL)
  internet access, then NCL 135 would allow both
  offices to share the internet connection
  wirelessly
• Launched the second version, NCL 1135, enabling
  broadband connections for LAN-to-internet and
  LAN-to-LAN applications.

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WaveRider Communications Inc.

• LMS
• Designed to provide last mile wireless internet
  access to a consumer
• Targeted at wireless ISPs
• Network access points that accessed fiber lines
• Communication access points that accessed a
  network within a 10-mile radius, and modems to
  end-user computers
• Used licence free radio technology in the 2.4GHz
  spread spectrum frequency band.

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WaveRider Communications Inc.

• The internet access industry
• Demand for broadband access
• High internet traffic doubling every 6 months
• Consumers required access at speeds higher than
  the 128 kbps (ISDN)
• Factors driving demand
• Internet growth and increased traffic
• An increase in demand for overall connectivity
• Upgrades to existing infrastructure as technology
  improved
• Privatisation and deregulation which drove
  increased competition
• Wireless required less infrastructure and less
  installation

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WaveRider Communications Inc.

• Factors that kept competition at the local ISP
  level
• Equipment and ISPs neglected the wireless space
  until mid 1998 when a new regulation re
  multichannel multipoint distribution service
  (MMDS) spectrum (2.5GHz) to permit two-way
  transmission
• Point-to-multipoint wireless development had not
  progressed rapidly. Reliable equipment had just
  started to enter the market
• Wireless connections had negative perception as a
  result of the high drop call rate of cellular
  phones.

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WaveRider Communications Inc.

• The Wireless Internet Access Competitive
  Environment
• Access through fiberoptic lines, sattelite, cable
  modem, DSL
• Competitors
• Adaptive Broadband
• AirSpan
• BreezeCOM
• Cisco Systems
• Lucent Technologies
• Motorola
• Nokia
• Wi-Lan

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WaveRider Communications Inc.

• Questions to be answered
• What are the shortcomings of wireless access?
• What are some of the customer barriers to
  overcome?
• The existense of various broadband access
  technologies coupled with rapidly growing demand
  for high-speed access gave some interesting
  options to WaveRider
• Should they consider either a marketing of
  technical alliance or a combination of both?
• If that is the case which technology should
  WaveRider form an alliance with?