NextWave Acquires IPWireless

IPWireless has an interesting technology that can do a lot of what WiMax intends and has more than 30 carrier customers in Europe and Asia. The problem is that though TD-CDMA is a standard, no one else has implemented it yet. This puts off other potential customers, notably Sprint, which trialed IPWireless equipment for five years before rejecting it in favor of WiMax in 2006. NextWave is paying less than half of what VC funds have sunk into IPWireless, but the deal includes an earn-out structure that means they can break even if revenue targets are met over the next three years. Andy Dornan Senior Technology Editor NextWave Wireless might be attempting to one-up Sprint and ClearWire, who have their own tight (financial) relationships with Intel and Motorola. By having their own wireless vendor in-house the technology road map will be more clear, but NextWave Wireless won't benefit from better pricing due to volumes and competition. Perhaps NextWave Wireless needs to remember that ClearWire shed its own similarly named subsidiary, NextWave, to Motorola. Frank Bulk Contributing Editor

NextWave signed a deal this week to purchase IPWireless, the maker of TD-CDMA network gear and subscriber terminals, for $100 million in cash and stock.

IPWireless has been at the forefront of 3GPP TDD UMTS standards, which provide the basis for mobile TV and wireless broadband public safety solutions, according to NextWave. New York picked IPWireless' broadband mobile technology to be part of a recent city-wide public-safety wireless network project managed by contractor Northrop Grumman.

The broadband vendor said the acquisition will help NextWave build on its product suite to include mobile TV and other mobile broadband technologies.