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April 10, 2001 Cubic Transportation Systems, a subsidiary of San Diego-based Cubic Corp., has been awarded two contracts totaling $8 million to provide more gating and computer equipment to support New York City Transit's MetroCard system.
The largest contract, worth just less than $7 million, will provide 250 new high barrier entry/exit turnstiles, the protective gating system installed throughout the subway system.
In addition, the company has been awarded a three-year $1 million software maintenance contract for the NYCT's central computer system.
NYCT will receive the first shipment by the end of the year and 25 additional high barrier turnstiles every month until the summer of next year.
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As a term, broadband leaves much to the imagination. There are many definitions of high speed access and even more ways for companies and consumers to use it. In the recent past, users thought high speed meant T-1 connections or better. Now, some are saying broadband should deliver 2 Mbps and be symmetric to boot.
To take a look at what is available, where it’s available and at what price, the San Diego Telecom Council is hosting a panel of industry insiders who will talk about the companies and technologies driving the market.
Join moderator Bill Stensrud, general partner at Enterprise Partners and a founding investor in national DSL provider Rhythms Net, as he guides the group through an informative session from 5 to 7:30 p.m. April 25 at the La Jolla Marriott.
Speakers include:
• Bill Geppert, Cox Communications.
• Clark Caines, XO Communications.
• John Osborne, Pacific Bell.
• Peter Romps, Hughes Network Systems.
• Jack Tortorice, WorldWide Wireless Networks.
The speakers will outline their company offerings and discuss price, performance and availability. Learn about the differences in the services and the issues surrounding high bandwidth –- including what is coming in the future –- like fiber to the home and 60 GHz unlicensed spectrum.
For information and registration, visit www.sdtelecom.org.
The cost for non-members to attend is $40 in advance (by Friday April 20), $45 at the door.
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3rd Pipe Communications Inc. of Carlsbad has expanded its services by forming a new strategic alliance with Joe Cristiani's Mobile Communications in Tucson.
An icon in the Tucson community, Joe Cristiani's 50 representatives at more than a dozen retail stores will serve as agents to include 3rd Pipe's FWBB to their increasingly large arsenal of mobile communications, from cellular phones to myriad wireless Internet services.
"With over 60,000 customers and our large force of reps selling cellular and wireless products, we recognized the dramatic, increasing demand for our customers' high-speed Internet connectivity," says Joe Cristiani. "Tucson and Southern Arizona customers expressed their dissatisfaction with existing services. We heard their ongoing complaints about geographic challenges and network difficulties, which led us to form the alliance with 3rd Pipe Communications, who offers rapid installation, an amazingly small rooftop antenna, and can boast of `always-on' capabilities for underserved and unserved areas of our market."
3rd Pipe Communications, which recently acquired established wireless provider Tucson Broadband, builds fixed wireless broadband networks and provides high-speed Internet services.
"The `need for speed' is quite apparent in the Tucson region, and the numbers for customer demand are blaring,” says Chris Heitman, 3rd Pipe's v.p. of sales. “As a matter of fact we’ve already signed up 150 customers in the last 60 days. We offer our customers speeds from 128 kbps to 1.5 mbps. Our capabilities, coupled with Joe Christiani's name recognition, strengthen our distribution model to faster and deeper market penetration."
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Rawlings Golf has launched its official Web site, a site created by San Diego-based Epic Cycle Interactive.
"The launch of the Rawlings Golf Web site was key to our national marketing campaign surrounding the re-launch of the brand in the golf industry," says Terry Favish, Rawlings’ director of strategic marketing and communications. "We are excited to now offer our customers the opportunity to learn more about our golf line, accessories and special promotions via our site."
www.rawlings-golf.com offers information and graphics of the San Diego-based company’s golf product lines, company news and upcoming events.
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Express Logic reports it has made improvements to its ThreadX real-time operating system with the addition of the TX_MUTEX object to ThreadX Version 4.
It has priority-based thread suspension, information gathering services for all system objects, several new queue services and a slightly smaller footprint.
ThreadX Version 4 also is completely compatible with all previous versions of ThreadX.
"ThreadX Version 4 is a great example of our commitment to technology. The previous version of ThreadX was extremely popular and has been rapidly gaining market presence as well as market share,” says William E. Lamie, president of Express Logic. “It would have been very easy for us to simply rest on our success. Instead, we decided to make our smallest and fastest RTOS even better."
ThreadX Version 4 is already available. Customers with active support contracts may upgrade to ThreadX Version 4 at no charge.
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Axesstel reports it has shipped 50,000 ACW-P1900 WLL phones to Vesper, the largest WLL carrier in Brazil.
Axesstel, headquartered in San Diego, received in January type approval from ANATEL, Brazil's national telecommunications governing body for its phone.
Vesper's purchase of Axesstel's ACW-P1900 WLL phones enables the operator to provide its subscribers in a fixed environment with advanced wireless services. As a pioneer in the development of intelligent WLL products, Axesstel is focused on providing economic and intelligent communication solutions to developing countries around the globe.
"This agreement gives a significant boost to our efforts in implementing outstanding telecommunications services throughout South and Latin America," says Mike Kwon, president and CEO of Axesstel. "We offer WLL and mobile operators in developing countries the ability to offer WLL and high-speed data products, which will soon include high-speed data and information services, from voice to multimedia regardless of terrain factors."
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Qualcomm Inc. says that Swift Transportation Co. Inc., one of the nation's largest truckload motor carriers, has selected and entered into an agreement to deploy Qualcomm's untethered TrailerTRACS asset management system units throughout its nationwide fleet of trailers.
Swift will deploy TrailerTRACS across its entire fleet, which currently includes about 30,000 trailers. That number will grow to nearly 45,000 if Swift's previously announced proposed merger with M. S. Carriers is approved and completed.
Deployment is expected to begin in the second quarter of 2001.
"Our fleet is already equipped with Qualcomm's OmniTRACS mobile communications system, and adding TrailerTRACS will further increase our trailer productivity," says William Riley III, senior executive v.p., CFO and secretary of Swift. "With improved trailer monitoring and utilization, we can operate more efficiently and provide superior customer service. This is the right solution for us, coming from the industry leader in mobile communications."
"We are delighted that Swift Transportation has chosen our untethered TrailerTRACS solution,” says George Dunn, v.p. and g.m. for United States and Canadian operations, Qualcomm Wireless Business Solutions. “Our goal is to provide long-term, high-value solutions for all of our customers, and TrailerTRACS is just one example. With additional data integration capabilities from TrailerTRACS, Swift can fully leverage its previous OmniTRACS investment and our network operations expertise for maximum fleet efficiency."
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Novatel Wireless of San Diego and Flash Networks Inc. of New Jersey and have formed a strategic business alliance agreement that will provide optimized wireless solutions for Cellular Digital Packet Data wireless users.
Under the terms of the agreement, Novatel will integrate Flash Networks' NettGain software into its Merlin CDPD Wireless PC Cards.
Flash will work with Novatel to provide optimization solutions for Novatel Wireless' Merlin CDPD PC Card product line.
"Mobile data users want the flexibility and versatility of the desktop Internet experience that they are accustomed to," says P.K. Prasanna, president and COO of Flash Networks. "By combining NettGain 1100 technologies with Merlin CDPD Wireless PC Cards, mobile Internet users can accomplish more - Web pages load faster and e-mail messages transfer more quickly, creating a superior wireless Web experience for Merlin CDPD PC Card users."
With NettGain and the Merlin CDPD PC Card, users will see a boost from 19.2 Kbps per second to the 56 Kbps that they typically experience via wireline modem access.
Users also maintain control over the type and quality of the content they receive. In addition, NettGain products integrate with leading VPN vendors to provide secure enterprise solutions.
"We will continue to partner with innovative technology companies to provide a true, best-of-breed wireless solution that is superior to our competitors," says John Major, CEO of Novatel Wireless. "We chose to bundle Flash Networks NettGain with our Merlin CDPD PC Card because it increases the performance to a level comparable with a 56k modem giving our customers a better user experience."
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TeraGlobal Communications Corp. and Science Applications International Corp. have been selected as a participant in the Global Information Grid program pilot.
The GIG program, sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, is an initiative to create a unified global network for providing information and communications services to users throughout Department of Defense, from warfighters to policy-makers to supporting personnel.
TeraGlobal and SAIC, both based in San Diego, will participate in the GIG Pilot Voice Video Data Convergence Demonstration Project, which is designed to evaluate commercial technologies and test their ability to converge voice, video, and data over a high-speed backbone network.
Initially, the Voice Video Data Convergence pilot will be demonstrated at nine Naval facilities in the San Diego area.
The selection of the finalists for the Voice Video Data Convergence Pilot was conducted by the Department of Navy Space and Naval Warfare Command Center (SPAWAR) in San Diego.
The selection process included the evaluation by SPAWAR of technical white papers, live demonstrations of the voice, video, and data convergence technology, and oral presentations.
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On Thursday, April 19, the San Diego law firm of Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP is holding "Equity Update 2001: Exit Strategies and Guidance for Software and Internet Entrepreneurs," a breakfast seminar to discuss the value of software companies in today’s market.
Keynote speaker Ken Bender, managing director and founder of Software Equity Group, will address many issues, including the current state of the software equity market and what necessary decisions entrepreneurs must make in order to enhance (or diminish) prospects for sale three years from now.
The free program is from 7:30 to 11 a.m. at the Radisson Hotel La Jolla. Registration is required. Call (619) 525-3825 to register.
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