LightPointe Shines Wireless Laser Beams On Channel Program
LightPointe's new Flight Partner Program creates Gold, Silver and Bronze-level partner authorizations for solution providers selling its FlightLite enterprise optical products.
The vendor also is boosting partner-recruitment efforts, with a goal of adding 200 to 300 more U.S. partners to its current mix of 150, said Jeff Bean, director of global marketing at LightPointe, San Diego. In addition, LightPointe is adding a new deal registration feature that rewards partners for finding new business and quadrupling its MDF program as it increases its joint marketing efforts with partners, he said.
The vendor's technology uses laser beams to provide high-speed wireless connectivity for customers with multiple nearby buildings or in campus environments. It offers an alternative to radio-based wireless options or costly leased lines from carriers, Bean said.
As long as there is line of sight between the two points, LightPointe's free-space optics technology can provide full-duplex connectivity of up to 1.25 Gbps at distances of up to 1,000 meters, Bean said. The technology is immune to the spectrum interference issues that plague RF technology and is license-free, though it can be impacted by fog, he said.
LightPointe's optical wireless technology has helped solution provider Speed Wire get some of its customers out of seemingly unsolvable jams, particularly in urban areas such as New York, where trenching city streets to run cables simply isn't an option, said Matthew Breen, vice president of the Floral Park, N.Y.-based company. Speed Wire has implemented LightPointe's solutions for customers such as the New York Mercantile Exchange and Tommy Hilfiger USA.
In other cases, the lead time to procure leased lines from carriers is too long for some customers, a problem Speed Wire has been able to overcome with LightPointe's technology, Breen said. "We've wound up looking like rock stars to some customers by pulling that out of our bag of tricks," he said.
LightPointe's partners also are targeting verticals where large-bandwidth files such as medical imaging, CAD drawings or video surveillance need to be shared, Bean said.