The headline works best if you sing it like Tony Bennett. Cisco Systems has purchased Navini Networks for $330 million dollars to get their hands on Navini's networking equipment business. Navini makes the WiMax version of wireless equipment that is poised to become the industry standard for the 3G data transfer protocol.
Unlike Wi-Fi, a rival wireless standard that operates at shorter
distances, WiMax networks allow the high-speed transmission of
information over distances of several kilometres.
Some telecommunications companies have
expressed interest in using WiMax wireless technologies to replace
traditional copper wires or fibre optic cable in the "last mile"
between their data backbones and customers' homes. Cisco
said the Navini deal would enhance its existing wireless business. It
would also allow Cisco to extend its push into the world's
least-developed economies, which suffer from poor telecommunications
infrastructure.
So it's just the thing for really wealthy people, and really poor people too. Three times the data, twice the efficiency, at half the cost of the existing standard. WiMax: It's a uniter, not a divider.