Enticed by the tremendous expected demand for wireless broadband services, Loop Technologies Inc., based in Ridgeland, Miss., soon will offer high-speed data-only service in several major cities around the country.
Loop recently entered into a Business Unit Alliance agreement with Cisco Systems Inc. to purchase and deploy Cisco’s point-to-point solution. The agreement also allows Loop to be one of the first companies to have early access to Cisco’s point-to-multipoint solutions for the 5.7 GHz Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure band, the company said.
“We’re preparing a beta test which we’ll launch in early fourth quarter this year. The beta test will be focused toward the West Coast and roughly 15 target markets that we will roll out in late fourth quarter and the first half of 2001,” said Loop Founder and Chief Executive Officer Jerry Sullivan.
As Loop’s service launches get under way, the company will find itself competing against digital subscriber line carriers and eventually, multichannel multipoint distribution services from Sprint Corp. and WorldCom Inc. The company’s goal is to differentiate itself and gain market share by focusing on the customer service side.
“We want to make the acquisition of our services as easy as possible. We’re focusing strictly on data, and we will eventually migrate into voice-over IP and IPTV,” said Sullivan, who explained that IPTV is like “pay-per-view over the Internet.”
“There are 180 million access lines throughout the U.S., and only 3 to 5 percent are true high-speed or broadband access lines. Where we are with true broadband access is where we were with cellular in the early ’80s,” Sullivan said.
Loop plans to take advantage of this market potential by providing frequency-agnostic wireless broadband Internet access at speeds up to 25 Megabits per second to small and medium-sized businesses and home offices. Sullivan said the company probably will recognize 80 percent of its growth on the business side, but as time goes forward, there will be a balance between its business and small/home office customers.
Targeting the business users “allows our marketing side to focus more on where our stronger penetration rates are going to be,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan founded Loop Technologies in March of last year along with John Greathouse, the company’s chief technical officer. Former director of advanced network services for AT&T Wireless Services Inc., Jaap Langenberg is Loop’s chief financial officer. The company employs about 40 people.
Cisco provided Loop with $50 million in financing in addition to an undisclosed amount of funding from corporate and institutional investors, which was completed in May, Loop said.
“We were the first company to sign a BUA. … Cisco feels confident that we can execute the plan. We have a proven track record on execution and have the ability to educate the consumer on what true broadband really is,” Sullivan said.
Loop also said it will explore opportunities to buy more spectrum as it becomes available.
