Complementary indoor and outdoor solutions leverage 60 GHz band
On the heels of a successful indoor product launch at the Consumer Electronics Show, Kwikbit is prepping to showcase how its next-generation radio and cloud technology can be deployed outdoors at the upcoming Mobile World Congress Barcelona.
As enterprise, industrial and carrier demand for wireless coverage and capacity continues to grow at an astonishing rate, the common denominator these stakeholders share is the need for reliable, on-demand gigabit wireless connectivity to support digital transformation efforts.
CEO Khurram Sheikh, in an interview with RCR Wireless News, said Kwikbit’s indoor solution is gaining traction in a number of high-value verticals, including supply chain and logistics, agritech, security and public safety. A customer focused on warehousing is leveraging the solution in support of internet of things initiatives in need of 5 9s performance and availability to connect sensors to cloud services. “Traditionally that customer would’ve taken weeks to deploy,” Sheikh explained. “We did it in hours.”
With proofs of concept underway in the shipping, manufacturing and media and entertainment segments, Kwikbit plans to launch its outdoor offering as the telecom industry descends on Barcelona for MWC next week.
“The outdoor solution is really an extension of what we’re doing in-building,” Sheikh said. “The overarching theme here is private networks. We can enable that outdoors to support things like smart cities, smart infrastructure, smart everything.”
Private enterprise and industrial networks are currently a hot topic. In the U.S. the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service band will be made available for shared access to allow non-carrier market entrants to control their own connectivity by tapping the valuable mid-band frequency. In other key markets, including economic powerhouse Germany, spectrum is being set aside to enable new high-speed, low-latency use cases for a wide range of industries.
In the context of CBRS, LTE and even Wi-Fi, Kwikbit can provide the wireless backhaul for these access networks, dedicated gigabit access and even data offload for planes, trains or ships, which need to dump huge amounts of data as quickly as possible when stationary.
“Our customers are telling us,” Sheikh said, “if you can wire up my building, wire up the campus around it. We’re offering symmetrical gigabit speeds along with an intuitive edge and cloud platform–this is a better, cheaper and faster way to do it than anything else out there today. We’re going down a path that’s very disruptive, both technologically and economically.”
The company’s outdoor solution, which can be concealed in street furniture or attached to existing poles, provides gigabit speeds with a 450-meter reach. The goal, Sheikh said, is to provide a wireless wire in a form factor that’s practically invisible.
To learn more about Kwikbit and book a meeting at Mobile World Congress Barcelona, click here.
