Two upstart Irvine-based companies involved in 5G telecom development, Movandi Corp. and Mobix Labs Inc., are creating links with Asia in two separate agreements.
Movandi, a 5G wireless technology equipment maker, is joining forces with network software provider Mavenir of Richardson, Texas, to provide super-fast telecommunications in Ban Chang, billed as the first “smart city” in Thailand.
Big data will be used in Ban Chang to improve people’s quality of life, including a 3D system to boost people’s incomes, a closed-circuit TV system to ensure public security, and various other innovations to facilitate and enhance local life, in addition to the state-of-the-art 5G system, according to the Bangkok Post newspaper.
5G is short for the fifth generation of cellular wireless technology on its way in the U.S, boasting speeds that are potentially up to 100 times faster than 4G systems in use today.
Craig Ochikubo, Movandi’s executive vice president of product marketing, says the Thailand project involves an open standard that allows companies to “mix and match” technologies. Movandi is supplying the central components that allow for the transmission and reception of the signal over the airways.
Smart City
Ochikubo told the Business Journal on June 30 that the smart city project in the Southeast Asian nation is “very exciting” for Movandi. The company will provide the technology, intellectual property and engineering methodology to let Mavenir and service providers deliver enhanced 5G services for indoor, outdoor and mobile use at 50% lower costs.
Movandi specializes in 5G “millimeter wave” technology to enable multi-gigabit wireless speeds.
Movandi is run by co-founders Reza Rofougaran, who won a Business Journal Innovator of the Year Award last year, and his sister Maryam Rofougaran. The siblings are Broadcom alumni.
Maryam Rofougaran, Movandi’s chief executive, said the Ban Chang project will showcase “the future of our increasingly cloud-connected digital world.”
Mobix, Wutong
In a separate development, chip startup Mobix Labs, which focuses on “5G wireless products and beyond,” said June 23 it signed a supplier agreement with China-based Wutong Holding Group Co., a global provider of radio frequency connection systems.
Under the terms of the agreement, Wutong will serve as a key supplier for Mobix Labs’ chip-based antennas.
“Wutong is a major, world-class manufacturer of telecom materials and products, with a rich, global supply chain network,” said Fabian Battaglia, CEO of Mobix Labs, in announcing the agreement. “We are delighted to have them as a supplier for our chip antennas, and eventually for our mmWave beamformer antennas in package.”
Mobix, which was formed last year and has attracted top tech talent in OC, said in June that it had also entered into an agreement with Acromax Inc., a distributor of semiconductors and solutions in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Under the terms of the earlier distribution agreement, Acromax will distribute Mobix’s products, including the company’s beamformers, antenna solutions and analog/radio frequency semiconductors, according to the Irvine-based company.
