Countdown

Yawwwwn. Been pretty quiet on the xG news front recently. I guess everyone is waiting for the result of the trial (... the Army trial, not the Bohman v Kromka, xG v Chimay, or Woodyatt v Chimay trials). The agreed period was for 6 months, from 5th October 2010. To add some *glamour* :-P to the webpage I’ve added a countdown clock on the right to the deadline on 5th April 2011.

What happens after that? If the Army trial fails, my prediction is; nothing will happen. Literally nothing, because xG will be gone, finished. The money will have run out, and I can’t see Rick’s ‘generosity’ extending to keeping the company afloat when he can default on himself and award himself any 'assets’ that remain on the carcass. Should a miracle happen and the military ignore other advanced military radios (like ITT’s Spearnet) and go with xG, then my predicted timescale doesn’t change, as Mooers can still default on himself at any time.

The timescale seems accurate. xG have an events section on their website. It lists the events they plan on attending, or exhibiting in. It may be a coincidence, but there are no planned events after the end of the Army trial. In fact the major cognitive radio exhibition in the world is DySpan organised by the IEEE and it takes place only a month after the end of the trial on 3rd-6th May 2011. All the big boys will be there: Microsoft, Nokia, Ericsson, Toshiba, Alcatel, et cetera, et cetera. xG strangely aren’t down to attend. It may be that they think the IEEE will laugh at them, but for a company hoping to be the ‘world communications standard’ it’s a pretty glaring omission.

(In fact the IEEE are calling for papers about cognitive radio to present at the show. If xG want to be this ‘world communications standard’ then now’s their chance...)

The exhibitions they are planning on attending are more of the same old things they’ve been to without success in the past: CITA wireless, IWCE. These are exhibitions for local telephone suppliers, mobile broadband, voice video, data suppliers etc. Sure, most of the atendees will be switched on, but it's conceivably the sort of place where they may find a few people that don’t ask too many hard questions about cognitive radio. The kind of event that has previously won them massive deals, like Townes Telecommunications.

P.S. If you find all this talk of Cognitive Radios confusing then you are Marc Dannenberg. Here’s a nice cartoon to explain it all Marc.