WIRELESS CONTRACT TO BOOST JOBS HERE



Spike Broadband Systems Inc. of New Hampshire landed a breakthrough $335 million telecommunications contract this month, sending ripples of success all the way to Richmond.

The contract to build a wireless broadband network capable of serving 95 percent of Denmark means more jobs at Spike's local research-and-development center, which employs more than 50 people.

Spike describes the project as the world's largest deployment of a fixed-wireless network, which provides voice, video and high-speed data services.

Founders of Integrity Broadband Systems, the Richmond company that merged last year with Spike, said the contract is just what they had in mind.

"It is quite a coup for us," said C.D.L. Perkins, an Integrity founder and original investor in the firm.

The Spike contract is with Sonofon, Denmark's second-largest mobile communications carrier. Owned by BellSouth International and Telenor, Sonofon has nearly 1 million mobile customers.

Spike Senior Vice President Tom Bowden, with Integrity since its 1994 founding, described the work as a breakthrough for the company, which competes with Nortel Networks, Alcatel and others to provide fixed-wireless services.

Spike will build the network infrastructure during the first two years of the five-year contract and provide additional services and equipment later in the contract period.

"The contract has some very aggressive delivery dates," Bowden said. "Our people are working some long hours and rescheduling vacations."

Most of Spike's work is international. Fixed wireless has been slow to catch on in the United States, where competing high-speed Internet technologies such as cable modems and digital subscriber lines dominate.

Fixed wireless relies on base stations to beam information wirelessly to users.

Companies such as Teligent and Winstar, which saw the technology as a way to provide broadband services to office buildings and businesses, ran into financial trouble before they could get much market share.

Other companies have offered fixed-wireless broadband Internet services to residential customers in limited U.S. test markets.

Herb Jackson of Richmond-based Renaissance Ventures, another of Integrity's early investors, said he thinks a successful deployment of the Denmark contract will bolster the appeal of fixed wireless. That could send more positive ripples in this direction.

"This means significant growth and employment opportunities for Spike's Richmond operations," Jackson said.



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