Infinitec Networks.

Helping Latin American telcos extend their services

Manolo Blanco knows from personal experience how eager Latin Americans are for telephone service. As a young man managing his father's snowpea and coffee plantation, Blanco had the only working telephone in the remote Guatemalan town of Santo Domingo Xenacoj. When a call came in for one of the villagers, a procession of friends and relatives would rush to Blanco's office to watch the conversation unfold.

"The joy in their faces and the stories spun from that phone contact were amazing to behold," says Blanco, director of business development in Mexico, the Caribbean and Latin America for Infinitec Networks Inc., a leader in the development of advanced communications network technology. "It's truly exciting to be able to have such an impact on people's lives by providing something so basic as telephone service."

Infinitec Networks was founded on four essential principles -- "People, Solutions, Technology and Uncompromising Integrity."

The company is uniquely positioned to supply the Latin American market with innovative, cost-effective ways of extending phone service into far-flung villages and the most crowded, overbuilt cities, as well as increasing online connectivity.

In a region where telephone density is famously low, the technology supplied by Infinitec Networks makes it possible for Latin American telephone companies to add new customers and Internet services -- easily and profitably.

"We can add 48 individual subscribers onto a single pair of wires. That means if a village has one phone, we can turn it into 48," says Ron Waeghe, vice president of sales and marketing for the Tulsa, Oklahoma-based company. "We use existing copper and fiber optic lines, or wireless networks. There's no need to dig up the streets."

For telcos and CLECs (Competitive Local Exchange Carriers), the solution makes enormous sense. Not only are there no costs for stringing more wire or laying more cable, the companies can sell or lease their existing telephone line infrastructure 48 times. In Mexico, for example, where deregulation has created a competitive new market for telephone service providers, Infinitec Networks' technology should prove to be a boon to their bottom line. It also provides to carriers the capability to offer more bandwidth and fast Internet service.

Infinitec's products include:

* The ADSL G.Lite solution, the remote access multiplexer that allows service providers to maximize existing infrastructure and minimize provisioning costs when extending ADSL services to remote locations served by DLCs. The product also accommodates small central offices or multi-dwelling units with high-bandwidth services where the density of a full DSLAM may never be necessary.

* A suite of Multi-service Intelligent Access Platforms that provide digital loop carrier systems, universal access platforms, dial data routing, fiber muxs and remote network interface devices (NID) for local exchange carriers, CLECs and RBOC operators.

* The Inteleflex solution is an advanced multi-service network transmission system for the local loop that increases the capacity of existing copper infrastructure by up to 4,800%.

* A fully Bellcore compatible GR303 family of interfaces allowing for direct connection to the leading manufacturers of Class 5 telephone switches, DMS 100, DMS 10, 5 ESS and soon-to-follow releases for the GTD 5 and EWSD type installations. The interfaces allow improved voice processing, reduce line card costs and provide all available special service offerings.

* The Netflex product, which routes Internet traffic.

The company, previously known as Infinitec Communications, recently opened an engineering office in Dallas and will grow its presence south of the border. It changed its name in June 2000 to better reflect its core competencies.

As the company expands in Latin America and the Caribbean, it is honing its strategy. "One thing we know is that you must do the business from within the country," says Waeghe, who previously worked in China and other parts of Asia. "In Mexico, that requires in-country Mexican representation and post-sales support."

Blanco, a veteran of Lucent Technologies, says the company is also seeking to form joint ventures and alliances with established companies in Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and ultimately South America.

The outlook is bright. "The opportunities for us internationally could exceed the current revenues for the United States," says Waeghe. "The commitment of governments like Mexico's to extend telephone service and encourage the adoption rate are very promising for us.