New technology solutions presented during fast-pitch sessions at the recent Telecom Council Carrier Connections conference in Mountain View, Calif., ran the gamut from a voice-activated personal assistant to embedded data harvesting software and small-cell solutions to boost wireless carrier data capacity.
The normally off-the-record pitch sessions were opened up to attendees at the TC3 Forum.
Steven Glapa, VP of marketing for Berkeley, Calif.-based Tarana Wireless, laid out his company’s niche of boosting signal speeds in challenging environments where line-of-sight architecture is not possible.
“Because of all the smarts we have, we don’t have to worry about that,” Galpa told a panel of investors. “We can deliver 100% reliable, rock-solid bandwidth in crazy situations like Manhattan.”
“We make gear specifically for non-line-of-sight,” Galpa added “If fiber is not already there, typically it’s expensive to put it there. What we found is that if you want to do a wireless alternative to that, most of the sites you want to reach are non-line-of-sight.”
Tarana Wireless’ transport products offer wireless fiber extensions, fixed wireless access and NLoS backhaul.
Cloudberry CEO Tom Guldberg called reliable coverage “the biggest issue in the industry. We are delivering coverage as a service based on small-cell technologies.”
The Norwegian firm designs and deploys indoor small cells available to carriers for data offloading.
“We are doing something that nobody else is doing,” Guldberg told investors. “We are offering neutral networks. We are delivering the service that enables the operators to very swiftly create a situation where their customers are happy.”
In response to a question about monetization, Guldberg explained that the small cells are made available to carriers based on usage-based fees; alternatively, property owners can have a small cell installed then make arrangements with carriers for access.
“Mobility is a buzzword that has no meaning,” Guldberg said. “Why’s that? Because 80% of the time you are either in the office or at home, which means we need to get the signal, as fast as we can, down into the ground and into the fiber.”
Speaktoit CEO Ilya Gelfenbeyn touted his company’s voice-based personal assistant as much better than Apple’s Siri; the app features proactive assistance, context awareness and natural language understanding.
“It is the best system on the market,” he told investors, adding that Speaktoit would come loaded on new Sharp devices including the next generation Aquos phone.
A rep from SSC-Shared Spectrum Company talked up the Vienna, Va.-based research and development outfit’s embedded spectrum sensing toolbox software, which harvests wireless device data in real time to increase coverage capacity.
Other pitches came from Range Networks, SigFox, NetNumber, Canvas and Flatout. Investment companies represented were Telstra, NGP, Intel Capital, SingTel Innov8 and SoftBank Capital.
Videos of all the TC3 fast pitches are available here on the RCR Wireless News YouTube channel.
