Cmpe 472 Case II in E-commerce Architecture

WaveRider Communications Inc. Founded in 1997 To become the leader in the global wireless information technology by developing, selling and supporting products that enabled wireless internet service providers Raised $27.5 mm for R&D Signed agreements and installations in over 30 countries Over 100 employees

WaveRider Communications Inc. Did not have enough resources to develop business opportunities Had partnerships with resellers and technology installers Launched two products –NCL –LMS

WaveRider Communications Inc. NCL 135 –First product –A wireless high speed router that provided secure, reliable connections to corporate networks –Designed to replace ISDN lines onsite –If the customer had two offices and one of the had a LAN with digital subscriber line (DSL) internet access, then NCL 135 would allow both offices to share the internet connection wirelessly –Launched the second version, NCL 1135, enabling broadband connections for LAN-to-internet and LAN-to-LAN applications.

WaveRider Communications Inc. LMS –Designed to provide ‘last mile’ wireless internet access to a consumer –Targeted at wireless ISPs –Network access points that accessed fiber lines –Communication access points that accessed a network within a 10-mile radius, and modems to end-user computers –Used licence free radio technology in the 2.4GHz spread spectrum frequency band.

WaveRider Communications Inc. The internet access industry: –Demand for broadband access –High internet traffic doubling every 6 months –Consumers required access at speeds higher than the 128 kbps (ISDN) –Factors driving demand: Internet growth and increased traffic An increase in demand for overall connectivity Upgrades to existing infrastructure as technology improved Privatisation and deregulation which drove increased competition –Wireless required less infrastructure and less installation

WaveRider Communications Inc. Factors that kept competition at the local ISP level: –Equipment and ISPs neglected the wireless space until mid 1998 when a new regulation re multichannel multipoint distribution service (MMDS) spectrum (2.5GHz) to permit two-way transmission –Point-to-multipoint wireless development had not progressed rapidly. Reliable equipment had just started to enter the market –Wireless connections had negative perception as a result of the high drop call rate of cellular phones.

WaveRider Communications Inc. The Wireless Internet Access Competitive Environment –Access through fiberoptic lines, sattelite, cable modem, DSL –Competitors Adaptive Broadband AirSpan BreezeCOM Cisco Systems Lucent Technologies Motorola Nokia Wi-Lan

WaveRider Communications Inc. Questions to be answered: 1.What are the shortcomings of wireless access? 2.What are some of the customer barriers to overcome? 3.The existense of various broadband access technologies coupled with rapidly growing demand for high-speed access gave some interesting options to WaveRider: –Should they consider either a marketing of technical alliance or a combination of both? –If that is the case which technology should WaveRider form an alliance with?