Alvarion Discusses Municipal WiFi Networks (ALVR, ELNK)

Alvarion CEO Tzvika Friedman discussed US municipal WiFi networks on his recent conference call:

In North America, the municipal market is continuing to get a lot of attention and is growing quite rapidly. It is really two different markets: One, where low cost civic access is the driver, and the other which is focussed on productivity gains and public safety. On the civic access site, we provide the high-capacity, municipal network that is being used to feed all these mesh clouds you are reading about. Recent example includes Corpus Christi, Madison Wisconsin, and several others. On the public safety side, not only are we providing a municipal network, but we are also able to provide mobile access to vehicles like police cars and other emergency vehicles using our 900 Megahertz mobile solutions. A good example of this is our present project where we also worked with IBM.

...Meanwhile, Tier 1 prospects in the U.S. and around the world are taking up a lot of our time while generating very little revenue. We are working with several large carriers in the U.S. on various projects, which include numerous opportunities. Sales cycles are very long and most of the Tier 1 carriers are looking towards the availability of 802.16e base solution for various types of applications -- fixed, nomadic, portable, and mobile.

(Excerpt from the Alvarion conference call transcript.)

These calls are invaluable: they're the best source of information available to investors about companies and markets now that Reg FD has restricted communication between companies and investors. Perhaps at some point Alvarion will say something that will help Earthlink (ELNK) investors predict Earthlink's municipal WiFi build-outs.