PLANO, Texas, August 15, 2000 - Nucentrix Broadband Networks, Inc. (NASDAQ: NCNX), today announced the successful completion of the initial phase of its broadband fixed-wireless trial using leading technology from Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. With the successful completion of this trial, Nucentrix remains on schedule to commercially launch broadband wireless services within the next six months.
Earlier this year, Nucentrix became the first service provider to announce that it plans to offer broadband wireless Internet access using Cisco's WT2700 Broadband Wireless solution that is based on Vector Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (VOFDM) technology. Nucentrix, a provider of broadband wireless services in medium and small markets, will use its Cisco-enabled wireless infrastructure to provide its customers with broadband wireless Internet access and eventually, telephony services.
"The successful completion of our initial broadband fixed-wireless trial marks a major milestone for Nucentrix, Cisco and the broadband wireless industry," said Russ Wiseman, senior vice president of Internet Operations at Nucentrix. "The Cisco WT2700 Broadband Wireless solution met all our expectations at this stage of development. We look forward to building upon the Austin trial with Cisco in Amarillo, Texas, and using their non-line-of-sight platform to become a leading provider of broadband wireless services in our markets."
Using Cisco's WT2700 Broadband Wireless solution for the 2.5GHz Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Services (MMDS) band, Nucentrix conducted a three-month field trial in Austin, Texas, and is now preparing for a second field trial in Amarillo, Texas that, subject to receiving developmental authorization from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), is expected to be completed by October 2000. Upon successful completion of the trials and receipt of additional regulatory approval from the FCC, Nucentrix expects to launch Cisco-based broadband wireless services in a majority of its top markets by the end of 2001.
"Cisco is excited by the success of the Nucentrix trial in Austin. We look forward to helping them roll out commercial services, and confirming their confidence in our solution's lower deployment costs and increased subscriber coverage in non-line-of-sight conditions. Cisco is very pleased to be working with Nucentrix to enable broadband access services such as high-speed Internet, virtual private networks and voice applications," said Constantin Loudiadis, vice president and general manager of Cisco's Wireless Access Business Unit.
Cisco's WT2700 Broadband Wireless solutions run native Cisco IOS. software, and is designed to seamlessly integrate into Cisco's networking infrastructure, network management and provisioning tools. In addition, the VOFDM technology lowers the cost of provisioning a wireless network while increasing overall subscriber coverage. With Cisco's solutions, consumers and businesses will be able to receive broadband access in more areas at more affordable costs.
