TRW Partners With, Takes Piece of Wireless

By Jennifer Freer, Staff Writer


APRIL 24 ? TRW Inc., Cleveland, has formed a strategic partnership with Wireless Inc., Santa Clara, Calif., to develop and market high-speed, wireless Internet-access equipment. The technology was developed from TRW's government and military programs and licensed to Wireless.


TRW would not disclose the financial amount of its investment, although a spokesperson said it did provide both cash and a technology investment in Wireless, resulting in TRW owning about 19 percent of the company.


TRW will continue working with Wireless to develop products for the high-speed, high-capacity transmission of voice, video and data, and plans to use any new services and products to benefit its government customers as well, especially involving secure communication services, a TRW spokesperson said.


The partnership between TRW and Wireless, a company that designs, manufactures and markets broadband wireless access systems for networking solutions, includes the licensing of TRW's wireless access technology, called SpitFire, for point-to-multipoint communications.


TRW said the products developed would be marketed to service providers as an alternative to Digital Subscriber Lines, cable modem, and other terrestrial-based networks.


"There's a growing demand worldwide for high-speed, broadband wireless access service, particularly from Internet service providers, telephone companies and competitive local exchange carriers," said Gerard Roccanova, a TRW vice president for wireless initiatives.


TRW's wireless access technology applies to a broad set of licensed and unlicensed operating frequencies between 700 MHz and 5.8 GHz and is designed for both indoor and outdoor operations.


The point-to-multipoint wireless technology with ATM and other advanced communications techniques developed from TRW's defense business is designed to enable true bandwidth-on-demand along with rapid installation and deployment options.