Vancouver, Canada -- fSONA Communications Corporation, a leading provider of broadband optical wireless
systems for "the last mile", and MM Venture Partners, a leading technology investor,
today announced the completion of a US$4.5 million investment in fSONA.
fSONA has developed one of the industry's leading laser-based, optical wireless
transceiver technologies. This technology forms the cornerstone of the SONAbeam
series of products and is designed to provide transmission links with speeds of
up to 1.25 Gbps, over distances of up to 4km. SONAbeam has been developed to enable
connectivity with all major high-speed telecommunications standards (Fast Ethernet,
SONET/SDH, ATM, Fiber Channel and Gigabit Ethernet), while maintaining the ability
to be deployed in less than 24 hours.
"We are highly pleased to have MM Venture Partners come on board as a venture
investor" said Theresa Carbonneau, President and Chief Executive Officer of fSONA.
"MM Venture Partners' investment not only further enhances fSONA's financial firepower,
but also gives us access to their formidable network of contacts within the venture
business".
"fSONA's strategy of providing a highly reliable, low cost and eye-safe solution
is set to place the SONAbeam ahead of other comparable solutions" said Ron Patterson
of MM Venture Partners. "fSONA is ideally positioned at the forefront of Free
Space Optical Communications, a market that is set to grow exponentially over
the next few years".
SONAbeam systems are aimed at meeting the rising global demand for inexpensive
Internet connections and enterprise-level corporate LAN extensions, where wire-line
technology is either unavailable or too costly to install. Currently, more than
97 percent of all office buildings in the U.S. are without broadband connections,
either as a result of the high cost of installation or the impracticality of fiber
optic cabling.
About fSONA Communications Corporation
A privately held corporation, fSONA is headquartered in Richmond, British Columbia.
The company recently began production of its SONAbeam family of advanced optical
wireless transceivers for reliable high-volume, high-speed wireless communications
in virtually all weather conditions. fSONA has an exclusive license from British
Telecom to manufacture transceivers capable of carrying information at speeds
as high as 1.25 gigabits -- one and a quarter billion bits of information -- per
second across free space to receiver terminals as far apart as four kilometers
(2.5 miles). For further information please visit
www.fsona.com
About MM Venture Partners
MM Venture Partners is the General Partner of the $150 million GATX/MM Venture
Finance Partnership. This privately held venture capital fund focuses exclusively
on public and private technology companies in Canada. MM Venture Partners has
focused specifically on a niche in the capital markets by providing venture debt
financing to Canadian information technology and biotechnology companies. The
fund's partner, San Francisco based GATX Capital Corp., is a global diversified
investor. For further information please visit
www.mmvp.com
For more information, please contact:
fSONA Communications Corporation
Mike Penner, VP Finance
Tel: 604-664-7772
mpenner@fsona.com
MM Venture Partners
Ron Patterson, Partner
Tel: 416-977-9718
rpatterson@mmvp.com