"ACHIEVEMENTS Below are highlights of some of Arasor’s major achievements in 2006 for each of the main segments of our business.
WIRELESS SOLUTIONS We provide wireless infrastructure and access solutions to our main telecommunications service provider end customers, China Netcom and China Unicom in China, and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) in India. Each of China Netcom, China Unicom and BSNL are among the largest telecommunications providers in the world and collectively service a marketplace exceeding 750 million subscribers. Our wireless infrastructure offerings include a WiMax protocol “Radio over Fiber” wireless access system to deliver data rates of 50Mb/s (greater than 10 times faster than average DSL “broadband”) over a range of several kilometres.
This product offering also allows wireless networks to be deployed at a significantly reduced cost and with greater ease and flexibility of upgrading. During 2006, we announced field trials with China Netcom, one of China’s largest telecommunications service providers and Official Partner of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, in the Sichuan Province of China, to build a wireless communications and data network using this solution. We also were able to secure official certification of our wireless Radio over Fiber solution from the Ministry of Information and Industry in Beijing, China. Our wireless access solutions include terminals and customer premise equipment that allow subscribers to access data at high bandwidths and communicate through a wireless network. We announced and are shipping against a major purchase order with BSNL in India and are continuing to ship our access solutions to our end customer China Unicom in China. We also intend to expand our product offerings in this segment as well as expand our customer base during 2007.
NETWORK TRANSPORT We provide integrated optical modules, systems and solutions that transport high bandwidth data (greater than 10 Gbps) leveraging fiber optics in telecommunications and private storage networks. Among other accomplishments, we signed a strategic partnership agreement with Pirelli Broadband Solutions to provide joint optical solutions to Huawei Technologies Ltd., one of the world’s leading network equipment suppliers to telecommunications carriers worldwide.
We are actively investing in our research and development capabilities to create additional solutions which will expand our product offerings within this segment. We also intend to evaluate various strategic initiatives, such as partnerships and acquisitions, in order to substantially broaden our customer base and secure a global market leadership position within this segment.
CONSUMER OPTOELECTRONICS Our immediate opportunities in the area of consumer optoelectronics include next generation laser television displays, using our optical chips to make televisions that utilise lasers instead of light bulbs to project a superior picture. During 2006, we announced initial purchase orders of our optical chips with Oerlikon Optics, Young Optics and Seiko-Epson. Collectively, these customers manufacture the light engines for many of the largest television manufacturers it the world, including Sony, Samsung and Mitsubishi. We also observed interest in additional laser-based applications that utilize our optical chips such as laser- based projectors and digital cinema. We remain confident that initial deployment of laser-based display offerings will begin towards the end of this year".
