John, what are your thoughts on CSATNET?

Misesian raised this point in a comment. Thanks Misesian. I have two photos for you:
xG's "special" vehicle featured from their Fort Brag debacle deployment;

..and Carolina Sat's own "special" vehicle featured in their website...

Hmmm! Does that Hummer look familiar? What was "special" about xG's vehicle was that it wasn't theirs..! It suggests there's some "special" relationship going on behind the scenes. Maybe involving a vehicle rental + press release scheme..?!

Also note that this transaction is termed a "12-month sales order",  not just a "sale". No money received as yet and is dependent on delivery of equipment in Q2 2012. Still leaves plenty of wriggle room. We've heard stuff like this before: sales orders (PC3 and Liketone), letters of intent, trial agreements, etc. No money ever changed hands.


Also note that, just like Force 3, liketone and the rest CSATNET conspicuously fail to mention their relationship with xG as a "Partner" on their partner pages. Oversight? Maybe, but it hardly seems like they are pinning their hopes to the xMax bandwaggon. 


Maybe this is because their system isn't even ready yet, after for years saying it was! Today's announcement is a doosie:

John Coleman, CEO, xG Technology. [said]"Our next challenge will be to make a system of affordable devices for volume production. Given the milestone we have achieved, I have every confidence that our team at xG will make this happen." ... Scott Garlington, Vice President of Engineering at xG Technology. [said it was] "the aim of making the xMax system commercially available later this year."

Ohh, Scotttt, ohh Johhhn! xG said this years ago! You ordered 10,000 phones years ago...! Before you switched xMax to newMax. Now it's back to the drawing board - again..! NewNewMax. Mooohahaha!. 

Here's is a little gem. An IEEE Communications Society blog by Alan Weissberger (ajwdct) which contains an xG press release from July last year.

"We have no knowledge of the company and have never evaluated their technology or proposed products".

Thanks IEEE

The mysterious Care21 & Palmi

Hello xGers! My apologies for the lack of activity on the blog. I've had other things on my plate.

Interesting news about Care 21. It does, as has been mentioned by Beerson and Balkur over at the iii.co.uk boards, have all the hallmarks of another "Far Reach" episode. Finding anything out about Care 21 is a bit of a paperchase. Marcus Losada definitely exists and his Twitter page shows he has fabulous taste in wines too. My hat is off, Sir.

Notice that he's looking at "other opportunities" from 2nd July last year. Presumably that includes the Care 21 "deal". Care 21 Ltd also exists their only current director is a man called Martin Holliday, Markus was a director but resigned.

Care 21's website lists a telephone number as +44 (0)1252 783212.

What's relevant about all this? Well, the link is Godalming, Surrey, UK. Markus lives there, the telephone number for Care 21 is there. Who else do we know that lives in Godalming?

Yep. Our old pal Palmi Sigmarsson! Just around the corner from Markus. Palmi is, if you remember, the man who shorted his own company, the man who was closed down by the finance inspectorate. What could he be up to? Was it an attempt to raise the shareprice so he could dump even more stock? (He is dumping: He used to have 22 million shares. Now he has around only 7 million).

Did he talk Markus into a deal? Did Markus (or his investors) then do their homework?

Whichever way round it was it seems that this "deal" can be added to the long list of "deals" that never were, like Far Reach,  Gama, Telefonica, and all the rest.

Edit (13/1/12):  It's not surprising they didn't pay up considering today's news that the network isn't ready (when they've been saying for years that it is...):

Scott Garlington, Vice President of Engineering at xG Technology [said they had] "the aim of making the xMax system commercially available later this year.”

So far the only person idiotic enough to pay money for a network that doesn't work is that reptile Marc Dannenberg. Moohahaha.