Contracts
Aperto NetworksHas been selected by Egypt's Ministry of Interior to provide equipment for that nation's first WiMAX network. The equipment will be used to connect Egyptian police stations and offices nationwide.
The deployment of the PacketMAX solution will take place in two phases. Phase I is currently underway and will connect all major cities and towns in Northern Egypt. Phase II, planned for next year, will connect smaller towns and remaining rural regions.
SkyCrossAnnounced that its antennas have been embedded in mobile handsets developed by Shanghai Simcom. Shanghai Simcom, a subsidiary of SIM Technology Group, is using internal SkyCross antennas for several mobilehandset models.
MobilyHas awarded Motorola a $150 million GSM expansion contract in Saudi Arabia. The contract, which is specifically with Mobily's Etihad Etisalat, will further expand the operator's GSM coverage in the Northwest and Southwest regions of Saudi Arabia. Under the terms of this turnkey expansion contract, Motorola will deliver its GSM infrastructure solutions as well as comprehensive services including network planning, optimization, operations, and maintenance.
Elbit Systems Ltd.Announced that Tallahassee Communications Industries, Inc. (Talla-Com), its wholly owned US subsidiary, was recently awarded multiple contracts from US Department of Defense Agencies to supply ultra-highfrequency (UHF) satcom power amplifiers to the military. The contracts' values total $13 million.
Fresh Starts
RF Micro Devices, Inc. (RFMD)Announced that it will acquire Filtronic Compound Semiconductors Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Filtronic PLC, for an acquisition price of approximately 12.5 million pounds Sterling in cash. That price includes the purchase of Filtronic Compound Semiconductors' 6-in. gallium-arsenide (GaAs) wafer-fabrication facility at Newton Aycliffe, UK. This fab is currently a major supplier of GaAs pHEMT semiconductors to RFMD. The acquisition price also includes the purchase of Filtronic Compound Semiconductors' millimeter-wave RF semiconductor business.
RFMD expects the addition of Filtronic Compound Semiconductors' high-volume GaAs fab to significantly reduce its GaAs pHEMT sourcing costs. The move also should provide additional capacity, thereby providing RFMD the opportunity to capture incremental revenue that otherwise might be subject to capacity constraints during calendar year 2008. In addition, the company expects the addition of Filtronic Compound Semiconductors' millimeter-wave business to strengthen the product portfolio of its recently formed Multi-Market Products Group.
WiMAX ForumAnnounced that its lead certification lab is now open for formal mobile WiMAX certification testing as well as the evaluation of mobile WiMAX products. WiMAX Forum vendors may begin immediately submitting their 2.3- and 2.5-GHz mobile WiMAX equipment for testing. The forum's lead certification lab is headquartered at AT4 Wireless in Spain. The WiMAX Forum expects its four other certification labs, which are located in the US, Taiwan, China, and Korea, to open for formal mobile WiMAX certification testing shortly.
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.Entered a Department of Defense (DoD) Mentor-Protege Agreement with Princeton Microwave Technology, Inc. (PmT) of Princeton, NJ. It will assist that company as it becomes a supplier of transmit/ receive modules for Ball's contract supporting the Geodesic Dome Phased Array Antenna-Advanced Technology Demonstration (GDPAA-ATD).
PmT is a small, woman-owned business that manufactures oscillators and amplifiers for the military and telecommunications markets. The Mentor-Protege pact will allow Ball Aerospace to assist PmT in maximizing its in-house production capabilities while managing external fabrication activities.
TVRheinlandReceived accreditation under the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) for its electromagnetic-compatibility (EMC) and telecommunications testing laboratory in Rochester, NY. The accreditation conforms to all requirements of the ISO/IEC 17025:2005 standard.
Software Defined Radio (SDR) ForumAnnounced the launch of a worldwide task group on transceiver subsystem interfaces (TSIs), which has been created under the umbrella of the SDR Forum Technical Committee. The TSI task group will be dedicated to facilitating industry convergence on open specifications supporting the interface between the RF front end and baseband processing/modem subsystems in reconfigurable-radio products.
The group's initial objective will be to expand upon the work done by the European End-to-End Reconfigurability program and other related efforts to define standard transceiver application programming interfaces (APIs) for use by radio-equipment manufacturers in the commercial, public-safety, and defense domains. These APIs will act as an abstraction layer for the transceiver hardware, thereby facilitating the insertion of new or updated physical-layer waveform applications and air-interface standards while the radio is in operation.
ITT Corp.Completed the acquisition of EDO Corp. for $56.00 per share plus the assumption of debt. This transaction is valued at approximately $1.7 billion. EDO, which employs approximately 4000 people, focuses on the design and development of advanced systems at the center of the military's transition to more secure and smarter defense capabilities. EDO has grown revenues at a compound annual growth rate of almost 16 percent over the last three years. It is anticipated to grow at approximately 60 percent in 2007 to its currentyear forecast of approximately $1.15 billion. EDO will be fully integrated with ITT's defense business.