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Mobilitie Tech Helps Dems, GOP Spread Messages

Mobilitie LLC’s technology played key roles at the recent Republican and Democratic national conventions.

The Newport Beach-based company provided high-speed antenna systems at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla., for the GOP confab and at Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, N.C., where the Democrats staged their convention.

At Tropicana Field—also home to professional baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays—the company installed 516 antennas to improve wireless coverage, capacity and data speeds during event peak times, including the convention’s kick-off ceremonies that were pushed back one day because of Hurricane Isaac.

Mobilitie installed 524 antennas at Time Warner Cable Arena, where pro basketball’s Charlotte Bobcats calls home.

The systems are billed to ensure voice connections and to allow smart phones, tablets and other devices to access the Internet, run interactive applications and quickly upload photos and videos to social networking sites, among other benefits.

Mobilitie, one of the country’s largest owners of cell towers, sold off a portion of its portfolio to Boca Raton, Fla.-based competitor SBA Communications Corp. this year for about $1.1 billion.

Proceeds from the sale helped solidify Chief Executive Gary Jabara’s inclusion on the Business Journal’s annual list of OC’s wealthiest residents published last month. Since the sale, Jabara has made a handful of real estate investments, including the 12-unit Newport Courtyards in Newport Beach for about $5 million.

Perception Problem

AT&T Inc.’s recently appointed regional boss wants to erase longstanding perceptions that the Dallas-based company’s local wireless network can’t meet the demands of its data-consuming customers.

“The big plan is to make sure we tell our story and change the network perception,” said Jace Barbin, who was tapped in March for the vice president and general manager position.

Barbin served in a similar post heading the Rocky Mountain region in Denver before taking the position in Cerritos. He replaced Andy Shibley, who now leads AT&T’s national retail division from Atlanta.

AT&T, the county’s largest telecom with some 3,500 employees, has been on a spending spree to upgrade its network as it battles big name rivals Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc.

It invested $1.7 billion in the greater Los Angeles market from 2009 through 2011, with about 40% earmarked for Orange County, according to Barbin. That’s about $680 million in network upgrades, which include commercial and residential phone services and wireless and digital TV services.

AT&T has some 2,000 projects in the works this year for OC that include adding new cell sites to increase coverage areas and adding more spectrum for its LTE, or long-term evolution, and 3G networks, Barbin said.

In January, it launched the highly touted 4G network, which promises to boost download speeds and allow users to do more with their smart phones. In June, it established a microsite that tracks network enhancements in real time for regional cities and their neighborhoods.

Almost 87% of AT&T cell sites in OC have Ethernet or fibre lines, enabling LTE speeds and products, up from less than 30% a year ago, according to Barbin.

“It’s been a real strategic plan to change all of our backhaul,” he said.

Verizon is seen as the early leader in the 4G race here and also has been upgrading its 3G network. It launched its 4G network in late 2010 in an effort to boost download speeds, reduce dropped calls and improve overall service as demand for streaming data, video and gaming emerged.

Layoffs

Irvine-based drive maker Western Digital Corp. laid off 80 workers at its plant in Fremont, or about 6% percent of its staff there. That marked the second round of job cuts at the location in the last three years. A Western Digital spokeswoman told the San Jose Mercury News the company continually reviews its operations to meet customer demand. It laid off more than 100 workers there in 2009.

Bits and Pieces

Brea-based IT consultant and service provider WAMS Inc. is partnering with LevelCloud in Corona to help local law firms and other businesses leverage cloud services. Their pact is emblematic of a larger shift playing out in the industry, as smaller players aim to take market share from global leaders. Low-cost cloud service providers are projected to take 15% of revenue by 2015 from the largest outsourcing firms, according to Stamford, Conn.-based market tracker Gartner Inc. … H.K. Desai, chairman of Aliso Viejo-based networking gear maker QLogic Corp., joined the board of a Carlsbad chipmaker. Desai, who served as QLogic’s chief executive for 15 years since its early days as a spinoff of rival Emulex Corp. of Costa Mesa, accepted a seat on the board of MaxLinear Inc. Earlier this year, Desai joined the board of computer-memory products maker Netlist Inc. in Irvine.

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