Consolidation among wireless companies is underway, as Colubris Networks this week announced it would buy Kiwi Networks.
Kiwi is in its very early stages, but apparently it was far enough along that Colubris liked what it saw. Kiwi is described as developing cellular Wi-Fi technologies and automated radio frequency planning and control products for both enterprises and service providers.
Colubris says Kiwi is focused on a problem that will become increasingly important as wireless LAN technology makes its way into more networks – the problem of making sure that unlicensed spectrum behaves deterministically under load. Colubris expects to better mitigate interference and reduce network congestion.
Colubris plans to incorporate Kiwi’s technology into its own WLAN access equipment by year-end. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The deal came a day after Airspan Networks agreed to buy ArelNet for $8.7 million. Airspan is a founding member of the WiMAX Forum – which promotes the WiMAX standard for wireless broadband access. ArelNet develops VoIP network equipment, including softswitches and gateways.
Obviously, Airspan hopes to use VoIP and WiMAX in combination, so that voice can travel over WiMAX data networks.
Consolidation, by the way, seems to be well underway throughout the IT equipment provider and service provider industries. Take the MCI-Verizon deal, for example. Or Oracle and PeopleSoft. Or IBM and Ascential. Akamai and Speedera. Microsoft and Groove. The list of vendors that have announced mergers in recent months goes on and on.
The widespread consolidation hasn’t yet touched companies directly related to LAN hardware, but it does make one wonder whether it will.
