OSAKA, Japan-Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd. said it entered the wireless broadband arena through a partnership with last-mile wireless broadband technology provider Soma Networks Inc. The companies said they will jointly develop and manufacture consumer and infrastructure products for the wireless broadband wireless access market.
Sanyo said it will build the products, and noted that it expects to reap $270 million in sales by fiscal 2010 from wireless broadband sales.
Soma said such products are already in customer trials and should be commercially available in the second half of 2006. Sanyo explained that caymanone, a service provider in the Cayman Islands, already announced plans to deploy the SoftAir system, a broadband wireless access solution for homes and small businesses that provides Voice over Internet access based on Session Initiation Protocol standards.
“We are extremely pleased to be partnering with a BWA technology leader as we continue our expansion in the wireless voice and broadband data market,” said Yoji Ogawa, general manager of the planning department of Sanyo Electric Co.’s New Communications Systems Equipment division.
“This partnership between Sanyo and Soma Networks signifies the start of the next phase for the broadband wireless market,” said Greg Caltabiano, chief operating officer of Soma Networks.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
