New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will come in clear on TV screens thanks to MobileAccess’s technology.No matter where you tune in around the world next Sunday when you sit back to watch The New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles battle in the Super Bowl, you can can thank Israel technology for enabling you to see the game.
Super Bowl 2005 will be broadcast around the world using technology developed in Israel by MobileAccess Networks, which develops and markets communication networks and is a leading developer of in-building wireless solutions for corporate enterprises and wireless service providers. According to Israeli paper Yediot Aharonot, the company developed the communication network that is in place at Alltel Stadium, which will host the Super Bowl.
The Alltel Stadium, located in Jacksonville Florida and home to the Jacksonville Jaguars , is considered one of the most modern and best-equipped in the world. The stadium is the latest in hundreds of structures in which MobileAccess has successfully installed in-building wireless networks. In addition to the Alltel venue, over the past year Mobile Access has installed a similar network at the Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas.
The company has also provided in-building wireless solutions to high-profile customers such as the U.S. House of Representatives, Ft. Lauderdale Airport, American Family Insurance, American University, Red Cross and many others. It has provided in-building wireless solutions to Verizon Wireless, Sprint PCS, Nextel, Cingular / AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile, Partner, Deutsche Telecom, France Telecom, Orange, Cellcom and DutchTone.
Headquartered in Vienna, Virginia, with its corporate technology center in Lod, Israel, MobileAccess, which was previously named Foxcom Wireless, is a privately held company funded by venture capital. It was founded in 1998 originally as Foxcom Wireless. The company was re-named MobileAccess in 2003 to reflect its growing focus on the wireless needs of enterprise customers.
MobileAccess products provide business-quality performance and reliability for current and future wireless services, including cellular voice, Wi-Fi, and public safety, throughout large buildings and campus environments.
Most buildings – not just stadiums – but corporate campuses, hospitals, universities, hotels, malls, airports, and various event venues are not suited for wireless voice and data services. But as the number of wireless users, applications, and devices has increased, so has the expectation for in-building coverage and service availability.
The MobileAccess Networks technology – called ‘UnWiring the Workplace’ – delivers comprehensive in-building wireless solutions that enable users of cellular phones, laptops, BlackBerrys, PDAs and pagers to benefit from seamless wireless coverage within and lets them stay connected anytime, anywhere.
The company has benefited from the growing demand for full wireless coverage within buildings and on campuses, and believes that this need will only expand in the future.
Currently, it is often difficulty for people to get a signal on their cellular telephones or wireless access for their laptop within their office building.
“Five years ago, you didn’t have your personal cellular phone number on your business cards,” the company’s president and chief executive Cathy Zatloukal told The Washington Post. “We believe you’re going to have wireless devices that will enable you to do video, online conferencing, as well as the ‘push’ e-mail and voice applications you have today. These applications are things users will want to use within buildings.”
She explained that the MobileAccess broadband network supports both wireless voice and data applications. Instead of installing WiFi access points in drop ceilings, MobileAccess clusters them in telecommunications closets and amplifies the signal, sending it out to passive antennas that radiate the signal throughout a building. “The same effective power, and therefore bandwidth, that existed when the access point was in the ceiling now exists where the antennas are,” she told the Post.
The MobileAccess service is modular, so companies can add or subtract features as their needs dictate. “We’ve found that one of the major factors in evaluating this type of equipment, and where we think we’re uniquely positioned, is [companies] want to make sure that not only the cellular, but also the WiFi and WiMax applications that may become available, can be added to the system,” she said.
MobileAccess uses patented technology for the transport of Radio Frequency (RF) signals over fiber optics to distribute voice and data services to wireless users throughout a building or campus. The MobileAccess “Wire it OnceTM” backbone architecture saves customers both capital expenditure and operational expense. New services or wireless service providers can be added without disruption to the network or impact on existing service providers.
Company CEO Zatloukal joined MobileAccess in 2000 as President, and led the company to its current position as a leading provider of converged wireless enterprise networks. Her performance with MobileAccess led her to be promoted to the CEO position in late 2003, where she now oversees all domestic and international activities.
The company’s chief technology officer, Yair Oren, leads the strategic planning and technology direction initiatives of MobileAccess Networks. Before joining MobileAccess,
Mr. Oren co-founded and served as CTO of Chromatis Networks, an optical networking company that was acquired by Israeli company Lucent in 2000.
Following the Chromatis acquisition, Oren served as CTO of Lucent’s Metro Optical Networking Unit. Prior to co-founding Chromatis, he served as Chief Architect for Scorpio Communications, an ATM switching company acquired by US Robotics in 1996. Early in his career, Mr. Oren spent six years with an elite technological unit of the Israeli Army managing mission-critical telecom and datacom system development projects
In Israel, the general manager of the company’s tech center is Yehuda Holtzman. Prior to joining MobileAccess, Holtzman worked as product manager for DTI Inc. wherehe was responsible for all stages of product development from the initial market research to design process through product marketing.