Motorola acquires iDEN business from RadioFrame Networks
By Dusan Belic on Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 at 2:48 AM PST In Financial/Corporate News, Motorola
Motorola (NYSE: MOT) is acquiring iDEN business from RadioFrame Networks, which is known as a provider of lower cost, power efficient iDEN technology. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but we do know RadioFrame Networks’ stuff will be integrated into Motorola’s Home & Networks Mobility business.
According to the official press release, RadioFrame’s iDEN products will “further enhance Motorola’s portfolio for multi-channel base stations optimized to support non-contiguous spectrum allocations in the special mobile radio (SMR) business that are especially common outside North America.”
Moreover, Motorola says that with this acquisition, it can further enhance its push-to-talk technology roadmap plans for “strengthened operational capability, end-user functionality and cost-effective expansion.”
I’m not sure I agree with Moto’s strategy to invest in iDEN technology with LTE rollouts already being planned around the world. Any thoughts?
LTE is broadband and requires a minimum of 5 MHz of expensive bandwidth which not all customers own, need or have access to. iDEN uses 25 kHz channels, so they target different markets. Motorola is actually absorbing a network equipment seller — a competitor, so the buy provides an increase in market share for a niche market.