Telecom Lead India: Firetide is a provider of wireless
infrastructure mesh networks that enable concurrent video, voice, and data
applications for municipal, public safety, government, transportation and
industrial customers worldwide.
Bo Larsson, CEO of Firetide talks about the company’s
expansion plans.
What are your future investments and expansion plans for
global and Asia Pacific market?
As a global company we are currently seeing some
remarkable growth in the Asia Pacific market with some pretty sizeable
installations such as the one with LG Uplus. We definitely want to expand our
presence in that region to support the growing demand for Wi-Fi access and
wireless infrastructure mobility.
What are your new products in pipeline?
Firetide has built a reputation as a leader in
providing a reliable and secure wireless mesh infrastructure uniquely capable
of meeting the demanding performance requirements of real-time video and
multimedia applications. In addition to being an excellent solution for video
surveillance, the mesh infrastructure also provides a solid foundation for
other network-based applications. We are easily supporting several simultaneous
high-bandwidth applications for homeland security and public safety;
transportation; municipal services; and industrial applications.
Firetide launched its wireless access products in 2011
leveraging its wireless infrastructure technology and expertise to create a
solution that is extremely fast and provides excellent total cost of ownership.
Target markets include those where reliable, high-performance Wi-Fi access is
needed such as schools and libraries, Wi-Fi hot zones, and industrial sites. As
far as new products go, we are currently developing significant enhancements to
our mesh, access, and wireless network controller product lines.
What is your marketing strategies?
Firetide products are sold exclusively through
channel partners and we really depend on them to apply their Firetide expertise
and service to their end users. They are the ones in front of our customers
influencing purchasing decisions and are extremely important for Firetide’s
continued success. To ensure the end users receive the finest service and
support, we work very closely with our channel partners to make sure they have
the tools and knowledge they need to succeed in selling, installing, and
servicing our wireless infrastructure mesh and access solutions. Our
HotFusion Channel Partner Program, is specifically designed to help our channel
partners worldwide increase revenue growth. It includes our online HotFusion
Partner Portal that provides access to sales tools, technical resources, and
educational webinars. Benefits of the HotFusion Channel Partner Program include
discounted demo equipment, deal registration discounts, joint marketing funds,
sales promotions, and world-class customer support.
What is the uniqueness of your products that makes you
different from your competition?
Firetide has proven that our mesh delivers the highest
performance wireless network infrastructure in a way that is both reliable and
secure. As a true infrastructure mesh, our products support multiple
simultaneous applications including the most demanding ones such as video
surveillance and voice. In addition to covering very large areas and distances,
we also deliver true mobility and seamless roaming with zero packet loss for
network devices traveling at speeds up to 90 mph. Our infrastructure mesh has
been installed in thousands of locations for homeland security and public
safety, transportation, municipal services, education, retail, and industrial
applications.
One key aspect that makes Firetide’s wireless
infrastructure mesh network unique is that it is based on a distributed
Ethernet architecture. Because it provides the same network functionality,
compatibility, and performance of a standard wired Ethernet switch, any IP
device and application can function seamlessly over our mesh network with the
added advantages that our wireless connectivity and mobility provide. This
dramatically simplifies deployments and ensures the continuity of the network
infrastructure no matter what the location or environment is.
Another differentiator of our product is our
AutoMesh routing protocol which meets the stringent requirements of
multimedia applications for flawless operation of any video, voice, or data
application. Seamless mobility enables secure infrastructure roaming at high
speeds with low latency and zero packet loss even at 90 miles per
hour. Furthermore, our ability to span 14 hops at a time makes it easy to
create a very large infrastructure at a low cost without compromising
performance.
Please share company growth outlook for coming quarters.
Our sales and customer base have grown considerably in
the past year and the outlook for the remainder of 2012 and beyond is very
optimistic. We are expanding the application of our high speed infrastructure
mesh beyond video surveillance and public safety into new markets that are
currently underserved by conventional wired and wireless networks. We are
also bringing mesh
to lower end platforms and this is helping to increase our deployment footprint
and market share. In addition, we see continued expansion of our WLAN sales to
support a variety of needs including K-12 education and carrier-based 3G/4G
offloading.
Danish Khan
editor@telecomlead.com
