Jan Uddenfeldt, former global CTO for Ericsson and Sony Mobile, has joined Tarana Wireless' board of directors, the company announced. And in a press release from the company, Uddenfeldt wasted no time in explaining why he’s on board: “The strategic interests of their customers may have made Tarana’s innovations the industry’s best-kept secret, but their technology is by far the best I’ve seen for wireless fixed access.”
Added Uddenfeldt: “Their work will be immensely valuable to network operators. I’m looking forward to helping guide them on the mass commercialization phase of their journey.”
Tarana noted that Uddenfeldt is a former global CTO for Ericsson and Sony Mobile, and described him as “one of the main inventors and industry drivers of 2G, 3G and 4G wireless technology.”
“He is widely recognized for his pioneering contributions to the GSM, 3G UMTS and 4G LTE standards,” the company added.
Steve Sifferman, Tarana’s president and CEO, said Uddenfeldt is joining the company’s board at a critical time: “We have been working closely with tier 1 customers since our inception in 2011 to understand and address their real-world requirements for the next generation of networks, leveraging an approach to multi-radio systems we knew would make very large and practical performance gains possible,” he said in the company’s release. “The results have exceeded all expectations.”
Despite the seemingly grand pronouncements about the company’s technology, it’s clear at least some carriers are taking interest in Tarana. First, Tarana’s financiers include AT&T, Blum Capital, Deutsche Telekom and others.
And perhaps most importantly, AT&T Laboratories last year asked the FCC to grant it an experimental license to test antenna technology manufactured by Tarana. Specifically, AT&T said it wanted to test Tarana’s AbsoluteAir2 CN1 and CN6 concentrator node models with two edge node radio models in the 3300 MHz to 3650 MHz band.
Tarana on its website offers a video of an installation the company conducted in New York City with an unnamed Tier 1 mobile operator:
Tarana, which was founded in 2009 by a team of engineering researchers associated with the University of California, Berkeley, unveiled in February 2013 its plans to bring to market what it described as the world's first universal small cell backhaul solution designed to meet all mobile carrier requirements and to be deployed anywhere small cells are located.
Today, the company’s website noted that it’s hiring more sales and engineering employees to “multiple tier 1 customer contracts for large-scale deployments.” The company said its mini base stations can deliver Gigabit speeds to residential users via “low-profile base nodes” and antennas on users’ homes. The company promised the setup can “cut 80 percent of the capex out of your gigabit access upgrade strategy.”
Tarana’s technology is noteworthy because a range of companies – from Verizon to Google Fiber to Sprint to Starry – have hinted at or have embarked on plans to deploy a system much like what Tarana is selling. Such a setup would allow providers to use millimeter wave spectrum bands to connect nearby users to base stations that can support super-fast internet speeds, thereby eliminating the need to run wired, fiber connections to those last-mile connections.
For more:
- see this release
Related articles:
Tarana is newest small cell backhaul player
AT&T seeks experimental license for technology in 3.5 GHz region