Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 28 | Page 90

INDUSTRY WATCH SERVICE PROVIDERS OF ALL TYPES ARE GOING THROUGH AN EVOLUTION PHASE. Kamal Mokrani, Global Vice President, InfiNet Wireless • The InfiMAN 2x2 family, our flagship Point-to-Multipoint (PTMP) range of solutions, offers different connectivity options for a wide variety of applications (e.g. for LAN extensions, video- surveillance and remote monitoring, Internet access, etc.). It comprises of a number of innovative high-speed IP base stations and subscriber terminals (CPEs), with base stations providing high sector capacity, field-upgradeable from 40 to 240 Mb/s and using the same or less amount of valuable radio spectrum than traditional point-to-multipoint wireless systems. All our above solutions operate in both LOS (line-of-sight) and nLOS (near-line-of-sight) environments, across both licensed and unlicensed frequency bands, from 2.0 GHz to 6.4 GHz. How strong is the demand for scalable systems? Any technological platform, whether deployed by a telecoms operator or a corporation of any size, needs to address ever changing requirements as new services and applications are added in the future. Over the past few years, we have seen a much stronger emphasis from our customers for truly scalable and redundant wireless solutions, especially from those end-users who need to quickly replace their obsolete WiMax infrastructures with more modern and manageable platforms. This is certainly the case in the Africa and Latin American regions. How do you ensure your systems work in remote areas and harsh environments? With over 500,000 deployments from the plains of Siberia to the deserts of the Sahara, InfiNet Wireless is very accustomed to working in remote areas and harsh and rugged environments. Our completely sealed units offer significant advantages over other technologies, having been designed from the onset to withstand extreme temperature ranges and operating climatic conditions. Since our inception, we have learned to only use components, enclosures and antennas to cater for all environmental conditions, as evidenced by our extensive R&D test procedures aimed at meeting the exacting requirements of the toughest environments, with temperature ranges from –60 to +60 degrees Celsius. This is further evidenced by our installed customer base which includes the defence sector (e.g. naval, military ground communications), the energy sector (e.g. oil and gas, wind energy, power generation) and the transportation sector. COMPETITORS ARE SPRINGING UP EVERYWHERE AND REVENUES ARE DWINDLING. 90 INTELLIGENTCIO Knowing that getting our wireless units powered up in a remote location is always a challenge, we have consequently designed our units bearing in mind this limitation. Typically, our base stations only consume 12W and our remote subscriber units less than 7W, thus significantly reducing OPEX- associated costs for any service provider relying on our solutions. What changes can we expect to see in the telecoms market this year? There is general consensus that the telecoms market has to fundamentally restructure in order to deliver a world of distributed computing services. Wherever we live and work, our lives will need to be re-organised around the assumed existence of always- available and relevant information, and of course affordable means to have access to it. This translates into the emergence of new technologies and yet more complex higher-order telecoms infrastructures, as well as whole new applications to connect what was simply unconnected before. There is no doubt that IOT, VR, AR and cloud-based technological platforms are playing, and will continue to do so for a very long time to come, a more important role than ever before for companies of all sizes. At InfiNet Wireless, we expect that in the next three to five years, the telecoms market will become even more diversified. There are already a number of alternative technologies available that are conducive for fixed wireless broadband, one of which is 4G/LTE. The 5G initiative undertaken by all the key players in our industry will definitely become THE infrastructure model to be deployed by all operators in the not-too-distant future. Our current wireless technologies already enable devices of all types to seamlessly communicate with each other, thus creating true digital platforms of the future. n www.intelligentcio.com