Omnilux Launches Broadband Alternative to DSL, Cable

PASADENA, Calif., Sept. 26 -- Omnilux Inc. has launched a wireless broadband platform designed to supply internet service providers (ISPs) with an alternative to DSL or cable and a way to reach residential and commercial consumers who lack broadband Internet access.

Omnilux uses free-space optics to deliver bandwidth up to 100 Mbps to a small, rooftop "node" that in turn delivers access to computers and other devices inside the home using an Ethernet connection or Wi-Fi (802.11b) wireless technology. This combination of technologies enables ISPs to reach customers without having to access existing DSL or cable networks or to undertake their own costly "last-mile" construction, such as digging up streets to lay fiber-optic or copper cables to individual homes or businesses or installing expensive radio-frequency wireless towers.

Its first customers are with regional ISPs Sonic.net (Santa Rosa), Succeed.net (Yuba City) and RedWire Broadband (San Diego), whose customers may sign up for high-speed Internet access beginning in the fourth quarter of this year. Additional deployments are anticipated in early 2003.

"Free-space optics has unique benefits for service providers," said Carter Moursund, vice president of technology and co-founder of Omnilux. "By using an unregulated portion of spectrum known as IR light, our customers can avoid expensive and time-consuming radio spectrum allocation procedures. And unlike other unregulated spectrum, FSO signals do not interfere with each other, ensuring ISPs that their service is not degraded or interrupted."

For more information, visit: www.omnilux.net