E-Band Communications Sets a Goal to Become the Leading Manufacturer of High Capacity Gigabit Wireless Backhaul Solutions

By Todd Easterling, strategy and marketing consultant, E-Band Communications Corporation

Sam Smookler, co-founder and CEO of E-Band Communications, says his strategy to build the industry’s most advanced high-capacity wireless backhaul solution began with the vision that the demand for bandwidth for mobile subscribers was on the verge of unprecedented growth, driven by smartphones, PDA’s and other portable data hungry devices. Sam and co-founder and CMO, Saul Umbrasas, recognized that product performance and cost effectiveness for carrier deployments were critical factors for success. To this end, even prior to its first funding, the company forged an exclusive license with a leading defense technology company for the design and production of multi-function MMIC’s (Monolithic Millimeter-wave Integrated Circuits) that would form the technology platform for achieving the cost and performance objectives needed for the market. Although E-Band Communications began as a new player in the wireless backhaul market only a few years ago, this innovative technology has won glowing reviews and acceptance by some of the most prominent carriers in the world, and the company has grabbed first place in U.S. market share.

That leadership position was a direct result of the company’s strategic plan. Early on, E-Band’s leadership team agreed on an initial three-pronged strategy, First and foremost, they pulled together an outstanding team of people, the “best of the best” to take the dream to reality; the second ingredient was technology leadership to offer carriers the system performance needed for next generation, 4G networks namely, a gigabit of bandwidth with low latency, longer range (2 to 4 miles) and affordable cost for large scale deployments. This was more than PR hype. It was a dedicated and focused goal, to make a superior yet lower cost 70/-80 GHz wireless solution. And to do that, E-Band needed something different right at the core of the radio’s design. It needed a tangible technology advantage, and one which other backhaul manufacturers could not replicate. The proprietary MMIC technology provided that advantage.

The third ingredient was E-Band’s focus on the carrier market. To that end, it set out to enlist the endorsement and support of leading carrier customers early on. This support came in the form of a top-three U.S. carrier who, upon learning of E-Band’s technology advantages, invested in the company. This not only added solid financial backing and confirmation of the company’s product performance claims, it also attracted some of the industry’s top wireless veterans – high-frequency RF engineers, MMIC designers and high-volume manufacturing experts to join the E-Band Communications team.

In 2009 E-Band’s strategy paid off. It commercialized the world’s highest performance multi-gigabit capacity radio that was deployed as a core backhaul solution in the world’s most advanced 4G carrier network across 25 major metropolitan areas of the USA. The end result of E-Band’s product strategy is a GigE radio with the longest distance, highest reliability and lowest cost in the industry. The “E-Link 1000EXR” radio features the highest output power in the industry at +22 dBm, lowest latency at less than 5µs, and ability to handle jumbo packets of 16,000 bits and higher that are critical for today’s multi-media applications.

Today, the company’s technology leadership and performance advantages have been so well-received by 3G and 4G (WiMax and LTE) carriers that it .has surpassed its nearest competitor’s volume for USA Carrier sales by over 50% in 2009, and the company continues to grow in 2010 as it expands global sales channels and adds to its customer base. The original vision of worldwide escalation of bandwidth demand for subscribers is now a reality and it is clear that E-band technology in the 70/80 GHz spectrum will play a critical role in satisfying backhaul demands for 4G networks that will enable subscribers to ultimately have individual access to 100 megabits of bandwidth from service providers as LTE “evolves”.

E-Band Communications Corporation is now in full-scale production and still has some exciting innovations on the drawing board for the future. Having transitioned from merely a power point presentation for venture capital meetings just three and a half years ago to a fully integrated supplier of carrier grade systems, the E-Band team is enthusiastic and optimistic about the future and says “Bring it on.”

For more information on E-Band’s equipment, please visit http://www.e-band.com/ or contact Saul Umbrasas, Chief Marketing Officer for E-Band Communications at saul@e-band.com.