Fiber in the Air, Ubiquiti Networks

In many of the groups I monitor I am always impressed when the message board is filled with loyal interested parties. Ubiquiti Networks, UBNT, is one of those companies. And it’s for good reason. It represents a price performance ratio better than big companies and more importantly build to disrupt.

In the message boards I monitor, we have lots of little WISPs and they as a group represent the Ayn Rand’s of Radio. They all think they are Dagny Taggart, so that would make Robert Pera, CEO of Ubiquiti Networks, their Hank Rearden. But let’s not carried away with the metaphor; rather, let’s talk about the disruption.

Ubiquiti has a habit of finding the balance between performance and price. In its analysis of the marketplace for WiFi, it has made the Unifi product line perform like the larger networking companies, but priced it at the cost of home units (approximately $40 to $90 based on configuration). However, the real story is scale. 

This company is not aiming at being all things to all people, but is looking at the spectrum opportunities to maximize value. Its latest implementation is a synchronous point to point system called AirFiber.

This system can go approximately 13 Km with speeds of 1.4 Gbits. Pretty far, pretty fast.

Now the marketing for AirFiber is confusing because it looks most likely to be a wireless backhaul deployed system, but the comparisons are to DSL and FIOS.   I am not sure if they see an opportunity to support the enterprise intercampus market or perhaps alternative access services to larger companies.

In the video, they make a point of showing the system as a way to combat theft of copper infrastructure, in countries where the carrier’s buried cable is often mined. 

So is it point to point?    Recognizing that I am no Dagny Taggart, if I were still a network planner I would have a few of these in reserve for disaster recovery. I could also use them for outdoor events like golf tournaments and marathons.  In the company I used to work for the commitment to fiber is as the prime backhaul is almost 100 percent, but I am also aware that regionally the rule is get it done as opposed to do it our way, so the use of Radio for backhaul is already in place.

However, the Dagny Taggarts of the world I think would use this where ever the use of symmetrical throughput would catch people’s attentions. Alternate backhaul, enterprise access points and meshing of aggregation points would make sense.

Another interesting aspect is that Ubiquiti Networks has an aggressive product road map they are taking us down. It expects to expand the product line with three more solutions. One of them is a video surveillance system. It should be interesting to watch and they seem to be a good buy. Its stock has recently gotten a bump on the market and in this market doing well is not easy.

Atlas may have shrugged, but Ubiquity does not seem to have noticed.