Cisco leads the wireless way - for just US$295 million

United States networking giant Cisco Systems has announced it will pay US$295 million (AU$567 million) to buy a small Australian-based company called Radiata, for its big solutions in wireless technology.

The acquisition will enable Cisco to produce hardware systems using Radiata's wireless modem chips. The chip sets are claimed to be more advanced than others in the market, giving the vendor an edge over its competitors.

"Radiata have at least six to nine months advantage over any others in the market developing chips," Alberstein said.

"That will give us a lead in producing hardware systems in which Radiata chips will go into."

Cisco claims its wireless products will be released in the market by the middle of 2001.

Using Radiata's facilities at the CSIRO as a major R&D base in the area of wireless networking systems, Alberstein said Cisco will double the amount of staff already working for the research company to develop the hardware systems.

"Radiata's technology is a very clever design, it will allow us to put systems in to the market at effective price points," he said.

According to Alberstein, Radiata's chip sets will enable wireless networks to transmit data at rates up to 54 megabits per second, which is five times the speed of current standards.

The chip sets will be used to develop access points and radio-base stations, enabling data to be transmitted wirelessly at high speed from a channel back to a base station within a company's network.

In addition, users will be able to watch television or a full motion video on the desktop wirelessly.

"The major advantage is that companies don't need to pay for wiring and structured cabling," Alberstein said.