Wave Wireless Networking

With the Middle East market for wireless IT solutions growing at 40-50% a quarter for Wave Wireless Networking, it is perhaps not surprising that this Florida based company is set to open an office in the Dubai Internet City by the end of the year.

Wave Wireless Networking manufactures and markets outdoor, point-to-point, broadband wireless communication networks for voice, data and even video transmissions. There are many applications for this technology from offshore oil platform communications to linking banks into a secure network.

Iraq will shortly become a customer as Wave Wireless is a subcontractor to Halliburton, the contractor charged with re-establishing the initial infrastructure of the country. Currently the precise extent of wireless solutions required in post-war Iraq is being established.

In mid-July Wave Wireless assembled its regional business partners and clients for a briefing on latest developments in Dubai's Royal Mirage Hotel.

One applications story is the wireless connection of 200 bank branches in Morocco with a wireless high speed LAN and 128-bit encryption. Wave Wireless hopes to roll this solution out around the region to banks in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Then there are success stories with Saudi Aramco and Adnoc. The latter is connecting 13 oil installations with a 45km-radius wireless high speed LAN. Etisalat and Saudi Telecoms are other big clients. And in Abu Dhabi the radar for traffic speed monitoring will soon be linked by one of this company's wireless products.

'Clients like our product's reliability and upgradeability,' says regional sales manager Faisal Saifullah. 'We also sell a complete solution package and do not just sell boxes.

'There is also a constant investment in research and development, and in the next quarter we will roll out PDA handheld computer and laptop compatibility.'

The cost savings argument can also be compelling. Because there are no recurring expenses when using wireless solutions, organizations reduce their expenses. The company claims that its systems typically offer a return on investment of six months or less, and that many times the system actually pays for itself the first month it is installed.

Moreover, using broadband wireless solutions, organizations can free themselves from any dependency on the local telephone company infrastructure or service offerings. Connections between data and voice systems in separate buildings can be handled in-house rather than depending on a third party.

Now part of the P-Com business empire following a takeover, eight-year old Wireless Networks can now offer an even bigger range of solutions to its clients, and with business booming in the Middle East for wireless solutions the company can expect a strong welcome for its new regional office at the DIC.