Littlefeet Inc., a one-year-old company based in San Diego, announced its wireless infrastructure product line and said it secured $25 million in second-round financing.
Because coverage and capacity demands will increase as data use increases, Littlefeet President and Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Wood said operators must pay close attention to coverage holes and limited capacity, in addition to siting issues, particularly as third-generation networks are planned and deployed.
Littlefeet’s Small Profile Intelligent Coverage/Capacity Element network architecture products are targeted at the 3G data market. The protocol-independent SPICE line is designed to expand wireless operators’ coverage and capacity.
Coverage SPICE units are about the size of a skateboard, and Base SPICE units are a bit smaller. Both are eight-channel, 30-watt products that can be mounted on street lights or existing towers, which could help to sidestep difficult zoning processes. The products, deployed in clusters, reduce coverage holes and improve frequency reuse.
“The clusters work on the same frequency, so you don’t need as much capacity to fill a given geographic area,” explained Wood. “You can use four to five frequencies instead of the 21 frequencies in a conventional network.”
The SPICE Support Tool software is used for configuring the infrastructure products in the field, and OMC SPICE software monitors and controls the hardware from an operations center.
Wood said the product dynamically can change cell-loading characteristics to address changes in traffic requirements at different times of the day, for example. “The intelligent software transfers capacity to different cell sites [within a network],” he said.
Wood said the option is more cost effective than adding base stations or using smart antennas to enhance coverage and capacity. He noted SPICE offers a 40-percent savings compared to adding additional cell sites. The company is targeting a price of about $7,000 per unit in volume within about a year.
The company initially will target the Global System for Mobile communications market, with product commercially available by the end of the year. A test system using a personal communications services test license handles about 1,000 calls per night, said Wood. He added that several trials are under way, although he declined to offer further details.
The SPICE line eventually could work in conjunction with location-based technology or be used for remote monitoring and other applications, added Wood.
In addition, Littlefeet received $25 million in financing led by Palo Alto, Calif.-based ComVentures and including four U.S. and Singaporean venture-capital firms. The funding will be used to expand the company’s product development and establish its presence in the wireless network infrastructure arena.
The financing follows $7 million in funding Littlefeet received in August 1999 from the same companies.
