Com Dev and Alpine PCS Partner to Conduct M/ERGY High-Speed Wireless Internet Trials - Brief Article

Wireless Internet, May, 2001

Com Dev International Ltd. announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Com Dev Wireless, and Alpine PCS of Santa Barbara, CA, will partner to conduct initial trials of Com Dev's new M/ERGY high-speed wireless Internet system in the 1900 MHz PCS spectrum beginning in the second quarter of 2001. The two companies will carry out Alpha and Beta trials of the packet-based system in San Luis Obispo County on California's Central Coast - also the site of Com Dev's digital and software systems development center. The trials are scheduled for completion this year with full operational deployment beginning in early 2002. Com Dev Wireless designs and manufactures advanced wireless systems and subsystems for major global wireless, cellular telephone, and PCS system vendors worldwide. Alpine PCS, a wireless service provider, holds licenses for 30 MHz and 10 MHz blocks of spectrum in the 1900 MHz band, in over 40 countries throughout California, Michigan, and Massachusetts and currently provides service in California and Michigan.

Com Dev's M/ERGY system provides full high-speed wireless modem support to laptop and desktop computers. It also significantly outperforms Internet service offered by next-generation 3G cellular telephones. Qualcomm's HDR technology is the basis for the CDMA2000 and lxEVDO standards, and the technology that defines M/ERGY as "Beyond 3G." These standards together enable M/ERGY to provide data service at burst speeds up to 2.45 Mbps. The first M/ERGY modem devices will be approximately the size of current personal digital assistants and interface with computers through a USB connection. APCMCIA card version will be introduced at the same time. By supporting both nomadic and mobile behaviors, M/ERGY enables users to get access to the Internet from almost anywhere, as well as transit at speeds up to 120 mph.