Xg Technology, the controversial Florida wirless company with a potentially revolutionary technology, plans a massive commercial roll-out starting in a couple of months.
After complaining about the elusiveness of Xg Technology’s execs and the lack of transparency about its technology, I get a call from the boss Rick Mooers.
He has a good point to make. If Xg says how its technology works then everyone and his dog will copy it.
A wireless technology operating in unlicensed spectrum with low power and a 1,000 mile range from a single base station costing $50,000 is going to be ripped off. No doubt about it.
Fighting to defend patent protection against big companies would be costly and time-consuming. So what’s the option?
“We can’t prove it, we can only do it”, says Mooers, promising that, next year, Xg will perform the “fastest wireless roll-out in US history” when it installs its technology in 130 communities in the US starting in February 2007.
One can only hope Xg succeeds for one reason particularly. For decades now the communications industry has needed to be democtratised.
Conventional broadcasters, cable companies and telecommunication operators have far too much political clout which they use to impose costs on consumers.
An inexpensive technology which can provide data-based digital services outside the control of the authorities is exactly what the planet needs.
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Comments (2)
Hmmmm....
So it isn't patented?
So anyone who wants to buy one can do, and then reverse engineer and start selling for themselves with no legal problem. You think cannot do that?
The *whole point* of patents is you swap the legal protection in exchange for being forced to tell everyone how you did it.
Sure, there are (major) problems with the system, and there are (like many areas) the problem that the side with the deepest pockets will win...
But "we won't say say we don't have to fight in the courts" is a synonym for "we know we don't have anything real to protect"
Posted by Roberto | December 18, 2006 10:45 PM
Posted on December 18, 2006 22:45
Roberto,
It is patented, and patents haven´t stopped Research in Motion, Sony, and countless other behemoths from stomping on patents and dragging the usually smaller company through years of litigation.
If you have a choice, whether to let a few bloggers in on your secret and risk millions of dollars and years of time in court just to satisfy curiosity, or to go at it with just a handful of people such as the ISP´s you will be doing business with and the bankers who support your deal and roll it out so you can PROVE it works, what would you do?
By the way, David, I appreciate you following up on your prior blogs. You have more guts than most other bloggers.
Posted by Truthseeker | December 24, 2006 6:22 AM
Posted on December 24, 2006 06:22