Ottawa, Canada – November 30, 2016 – Edgewater Wireless Systems Inc (YFI; TSX.V), the manufacturer of multi-channel WiFi3™ technology for high-density Wi-Fi and IOT applications, would like to take the opportunity to update our shareholders, followers and company supporters on our overall progress and forward business progression for Edgewater Wireless.
Corporate Recap
Edgewater Wireless is an early stage technology company developing and commercializing next generation wireless technology. The company has developed the first and only multi-channel single radio WiFi technology called WiFi3™. WiFi3™ technology is revolutionary and designed to solve the critical issues of WiFi interference and capacity driven by the 40.9 billion WiFi and IOT connected “things” that will be connected to the internet by the year 2020[1].
Edgewater Wireless is the only company in the world designing and developing products and solutions to deliver more available channels AND enabling more connections on a single WiFi radio than any other WiFi hub, wireless router or access point.
Milestones:
- High-density WiFi solutions business unit:
- We continued our strategy to build indirect channels, growing our distribution partner base and recently added Wireless Republic a distribution partner based in Manchester and covering the United Kingdom and UAE. For context, the United Kingdom suffers from some of the highest WiFi interference issues in Europe
- Our team is currently training the Wireless Republic team on Edgewater Wireless solutions and the capabilities around WiFi3™ and and working closely with them to secure new systems integrators and agents in the region. Systems integrators are used to secure end customer sales and also design and deploy WiFi3™ based solutions
- We also successfully solidified a partnership with BENELUX-based Optima Networks. Optima is a systems integrator and distributor with extensive experience in selling advanced wireless technology and solutions. With extensive experience as a provider of niche WiFi solutions, Optima understands the unique performance advantages of Edgewater’s WiFi3™ technology
- We participated in the Misco Expo. The Misco Expo allowed the company to build our brand with multiple systems integrators and direct customer opportunities in the United Kingdom
- OEM and Licensing business unit:
- We are pleased to have formed a technology partnership with EION supported by a design for the world’s first LTE+WiFi technology solution. This partnership, like the company’s continued partnership with Zinwave, offers a unique, high-capacity radio solution geared toward the growing indoor wireless access point market. It should be noted that these complex solutions are based on deeply integrating WiFi3™ technology and have a longer overall sales cycle – further positioning WiFi3™ for long term growth. These partnerships also validate our WiFi3™ technology a future-proof solution to solve user density in highly congested wireless network environments.
- Additionally, we are pleased to report our continued progress with our Fortune 500 partner. We are currently working with the company to fulfill product requirements for a regional deployments and performance testing. Edgewater Wireless is also developing innovative driver technology and software for the customer. We will be active engaged in these regional deployments in early 2017. The project is of significant size encompassing 1000s of locations throughout North America. We have always understood the potential scope of the revenue opportunity with our Fortune 500 partner however narrowing that scope into a quarterly or annual focus is still difficult. By the end of this fiscal period, we should be able to translate the opportunity into discrete and measurable terms. We will provide further guidance on the engagement in February 2017.
- Product developments:
- Our team continued to make several technology advancements in 2016 including the launch of the world’s first 5GHz multi-channel radio which is capable of delivering 3 concurrent WiFi channels in 5Ghz from a single radio. We continue to develop our Multi-Channel Single Radio (MCSR) technology to solve the massive interference and capacity challenges of modern WiFi network deployments.
- Cable Industry Accelerator
- Edgewater Wireless was one of four companies to successfully complete the UpRamp Fiterator accelerator program. UpRamp is a subsidiary of CableLabs, the organization which represents the world’s largest cable operators, for the $500 Billion global cable industry[2]. We continue to engage with UpRamp and are focused on locking down the commercial business as well as adopting new technology innovations.
Forward Momentum
The last 6 months to today have been exciting for Edgewater Wireless as we continue to build momentum and awareness of WiFi3™ technology. The team is progressing the business rapidly as the exponential demand to solve WiFi interference is driving demand for wireless solutions that advance beyond the technical capabilities of the most popular “state-of-the-art” WiFi hardware available today. And over the last three months, the team has been enhancing our supply chain to position us to capture the opportunities in early 2017.
Understanding WiFi3™
One of the challenges of introducing innovative technology to the market is achieving recognition by industry experts and educating prospective customers and partners on what the technology does for the market and how it is different from existing solutions. This has undoubtedly been the company’s most challenging hurdle. WiFi3™ is fundamentally different from the traditional approach to WiFi. WiFi3’s advanced capabilities to deliver multiple concurrent channels on the same wireless radio and up to 12 channels in 2.4GHz and 5GHz in a single access point has never been achieved before.
Demonstrating the capabilities of WiFi3™ and introducing our technology to the Cable Industry has been a major focus for our team over the last 4 months. It’s important to note that throughout our UpRamp engagement with multiple WiFI experts from the Cable Industry that it was consistently stated that the current WiFi solutions available from major equipment vendors can not solve the growing interference and capacity issues prevalent in WiFi today.
Momentum Continues
The efforts of our entire team at Edgewater Wireless have positioned the company for continued growth in 2016 as we continue to build the business by our expanding network of partners, agents and prospective customers. On that note, we are continuing to ramp up our relationship with Raretech in India as well as several other APAC based service providers and distribution partners. Our relationship and opportunities with Zinwave, EION, Wireless Republic, Optima Networks, RaGaPa and others also continue to grow on a global scale.
At Edgewater Wireless, our path forward also includes engineering advancements of WiFi3™ technology while continuing to expand our patent portfolio. As a WiFi innovation company, Edgewater Wireless continues to focus on and invest in developing and innovating Wi-Fi for high-density deployments as we execute on our vision to fix painfully slow WiFi.
[1] ABI Research: The Internet of Things Will Drive Wireless Connected Devices to 40.9 Billion in 2020
[2] Trefis Research Report: The $500 Billion TV Market is the New Battlefield for Internet Companies