Wireless service providers in India, one of the world’s fastest growing mobile markets, have begun contracting TenXc to provide their performance-enhancing base station antennas, called Bi-Sector Arrays, signaling new growth for TenXc Wireless

With mobile users exceeding two billion globally, wireless service providers need to improve radio frequency network efficiencies to support customers and to be able to meet the growing demand for new high-speed data services. Ottawa-based TenXc Wireless Inc. uses advanced antenna technology to strengthen network performance, enabling service providers to cost-effectively increase the number of users they can support within their mobile coverage areas. The TenXc team combines 30 years of experience in radio frequency technology with top-level executives who previously held senior roles at Nortel Networks Corp., Alcatel-Lucent Inc., T-Mobile Inc. and Microcell Connexions Inc.

Founded in 2002, TenXc products improve network performance by using antenna beam shaping. Beam shaping creates a predetermined radiation pattern that optimizes the efficiency of the wireless link between base stations and customers’ mobile devices.

TenXc antennas improve coverage and link quality, providing reliable service to current customers. In addition, wireless service providers using TenXc antennas will have the spectrum to add new customers and offer new high-speed data services.

TenXc’s antennas garnered attention from Gartner Inc., the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner named TenXc a “Cool Vendor” in Gartner’s 2007 “Cool Vendors in Carrier Network Infrastructure” report. The award is given to companies that offer innovative technologies that impact the usability of a product.

TenXc is a privately held company and successfully raised US$30 million in venture capital co-led locally by VenGrowth Capital, BDC Venture Capital, JK&B Capital of Chicago, Venture Coaches and the Ontario Centres of Excellence.

Why Ottawa

TenXc is located in the heart of Ottawa’s high tech sector in Kanata, Ontario, Ottawa’s largest surrounding community. The 90,000 Kanata residents live in safe and affordable suburbs where an average family home can be had for less than CDN$300,000. Residents also enjoy commutes to work of less than half an hour.

Kanata has all the conveniences of a large city, including many shopping centres — such as Kanata Centrum. For sport enthusiasts, Kanata is home to NHL franchise team The Ottawa Senators. Playing at Kanata’s Scotiabank Place, the team has made the Stanley Cup playoffs for the past 11 seasons. Besides hockey, the 20,500 capacity arena holds other events, such as rock concerts, figure skating, and trade shows.

Business advantage

According to Fortune magazine, the world's 2.75 billion mobile phone users are growing at an annual rate of 27%. This growth is putting significant pressure on wireless service providers to add frequencies to improve service. However, because there is a finite amount of frequencies, prices for frequencies are rising steadily. TenXc gives wireless service providers an alternative to purchasing new frequencies. Adding a TenXc antenna will maximize a service provider’s current frequency performance and providers using TenXc’s products will notice increased network capacity, improved quality of service, and higher throughput for data services.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), India has been adding 4-5 million mobile subscribers each month for the last five years. In markets such as India, frequency spectrum is scarce and coupled with the intense subscriber growth, it has been a challenge for operators to provide high-quality services without additional measures. TenXc’s Bi-Sector Array antennas provide a low-cost alternative (to building additional cell sites) for increasing network capacity in CDMA and GSM networks. TenXc entered business contracts with multiple Tier-1 Indian wireless providers, including Reliance Communications, in 2008.

"The significance of this is that we're a small company that's had a large impact in the international business domain. It's not easy to do business in India, especially for a small company, but we've shown that it’s possible," said Minya Gavrilovic, TenXc spokesperson.

As mobile users migrate toward 3G services due to the introduction of Apple’s iPhone and Blackberry’s Bold, wireless service provides are experiencing an unanticipated strain on their networks due to excessive data usage. The growth in video applications and social networking tools (such as Facebook) has created an unanticipated spike in data traffic. TenXc’s Bi-Sector Array technology is equally applicable to 3G networks and with the deployment of these products users can expect higher data throughputs and providers can support more users than with traditional solutions.

Future growth plans

To meet growing demand, TenXc is currently looking for experienced radio frequency engineers to add to its team. TenXc is also looking to enter partnerships with additional wireless service providers around the globe.

Contact information

TenXc Wireless Inc.
613-591-6696
www.tenxc.com

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