July 13, 2004 San Diego, CA and Shenzhen, China--LightPointe, a designer and manufacturer of optical wireless products based on free-space optics (FSO) technology, and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., an optical networking equipment provider, announced an expanded joint strategic partnership agreement. The deal accelerates the delivery of secure, reliable and high-speed optical wireless solutions to a broader base of service providers and enterprise customers worldwide.
Under the terms of the extended OEM agreement, Huawei will sell and market LightPointe Flight optical wireless products in Europe, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Africa, Russia, and Latin America as part of Huawei's OptiX product family. As the result of a similar agreement signed in September 2003, Huawei already has gained market traction with successful LightPointe installations at all tier-one service providers in China.
According to Lawrence B. Prior III, president and chief executive of LightPointe, this expanded partnership will increase worldwide adoption of proven, scalable and cost-effective optical wireless products. "Huawei is a tier-one telecommunications equipment provider and a key player in China as well as throughout the rest of the world," he said. "We are extremely pleased to build upon our success in China while extending globally to reach new, high growth markets."
LightPointe's optical wireless products provide high-bandwidth connectivity at a fraction of the cost of fiber-optic cable. The Flight family, which is license-free and immune from radio-frequency interference, is ideal for a range of applications, including LAN-to-LAN connectivity, network portability, network redundancy as well as mobile wireless backhaul for next-generation networks.
"FSO technology is a good complement to Huawei's optical networking solution," said Wu Chuan Wen, general director for Huawei's international optical networking sector. "Through the partnership with LightPointe, Huawei will provide another convenient, flexible solution to our carrier clients and corporate customers while satisfying their urgent network demands."
With a global installed base of more than 2,000 systems, LightPointe's products have been deployed by service providers such as Vodofone, Telkom SA and Qwest. LightPointe's enterprise customers include AOL, BMW, Volkswagen, Nokia, IBM, DHL International, Sanyo, CNN and UAE University, Al Ain.
In February 2004, LightPointe secured $17 million in additional funding, bringing total capital and equity financing to $71 million. Rho Ventures and Huawei joined the latest round along with existing investors.