CPqD

"In a very short period we structured our operations in presales, post-sales, industrialization and technological partnerships and now we are fully operational with the complete WiMax portfolio: CPE [customer premises equipment], base stations, gateways and management. We have an integrated portfolio to start in the market," said Klemz.

The company came into existence six months ago, thanks to an initiative of the national development bank BNDES and the communications ministry, which formed a joint venture comprised of five national telecoms solutions providers and manufacturers: Asga, Icatel, PadTec, Parks and Trópico.

According to Klemz, WxBR aims to provide local WiMax technology development and therefore create a domestic WiMax industry.

The technology is being developed by Brazilian telecoms research company CPqD, which is financially supported by the federal government telecoms investment fund Funttel.

"CPqD develops the technology and transfers it to us, we industrialize it, pay royalties and the circle closes," Klemz said.

According to the executive, the company was created as a wireless broadband solutions provider which is currently focusing on WiMax and a bit of WiFi technologies. WxBR could, however, also be oriented to other technologies which may come up.

"The way we structured our portfolio, we can already start in the CPE market for existing infrastructures. Our CPE is interoperable with several other brands and we have been having talks with potential clients to sign deals," said Klemz.

The executive said the company is still awaiting the WiMax spectrum auction, which is yet to take place, in order for WxBR to know exactly which players will enter the Brazilian market and then define how to structure business development. The executive expects the company's business to see a significant increase during the second half of 2009.

"Our greatest advantage in the Brazilian market is that we are a national company, we speak the language, we have expertise, we sell in reais and have local support, as opposed to the majority of the companies that operate in the country, which depend on support from abroad," said Klemz.

Furthermore, the executive said the company is preparing to begin the local manufacture of CPEs, which will bring costs down for operators by about 25% due to the taxes levied on imported products.

"Our advantage is that we have a manufacturer among our partners, Asga, but we are obviously not limited to this partnership. However, it is a natural development," said Klemz.

The company is headquartered in Campinas, São Paulo state, together with CPqD, and currently has 16 employees.

"In the beginning of next year we will start our own research and development center, which will add another 10 employees to the company. We won two projects from [the Brazilian science and technology ministry's federal studies and project financing agency] Finep to set up our own research and development team," said Klemz.

According to the Finep innovation 2008 document, WxBR was awarded two WiMax-related projects worth 6.4mn reais (US$2.6mn).

The executive also expects to strengthen the company's presales and post-sales areas. Currently WxBR has Icatel as a post-sales partner, but Klemz expects to build his own permanent, in-house team.

source: Business News Americas