Motorola Mobility, BelAir partner to conquer WiFi

BelAir Networks has strand-mounted WiFi hotspot technology that was recognized by cable operators as the "best new idea likely to succeed by cable operators attending last summer's CableLabs Innovation Showcase. It also has its hooks into U.S. customers Cablevision Systems (NYSE: CVC), Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) and Bright House Networks.

Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI) has an international sales, marketing and field engineering organization.

Together the two companies think they have what it takes to conquer the worldwide WiFi business and thus are teaming up to attack that market.

"WiFi is just a great extension to everything that we do programmatically from a deployment and development standpoint and adding (BelAir's) product portfolio to that makes perfect logical sense," Joe Cozzolino, senior vice president and general manager of network infrastructure told FierceCable.

Cozzolino said international cable operators are seeking to leverage their plant infrastructure to provide access to wireless broadband, as a way to wholesale WiFi spectrum for cellular carriers in desperate need of more broadband connectivity and through a wholesale model to mobile carriers that adds a 3G or 4G radio into the access point along with the WiFi radio to create a picocell.

"Cable companies worldwide are hungry for wireless solutions (and) what we're doing together is letting cable operators start deploying wireless solutions faster and faster," said Bernard Herscovich, president and CEO of BelAir. "If you look at the BelAir business ... we have a product line which is geared to cable operators worldwide and a product line which is geared toward telecarriers. This partnership allows BelAir and Motorola to win in terms of new revenue acceleration by quickly leveraging this technology on a much wider scale."

For more:
- see this news release

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