Metawave Adds Interface to Motorola SC 4812 Base Station

The SpotLight 2000 smart antenna from Metawave Communications Corp., (Redmond, WA) is now compatible with the Motorola SC 4812 and SC 4812T cellular CDMA base stations. The SpotLight 2000 configuration has been successfully integrated with the SC 4812 base station in the field and several systems are expected to carry commercial traffic by end of second quarter.

The new CDMA interface is the fourth that Metawave has released or announced in the last six months. SpotLight 2000 configurations are also available for the Motorola SC 9600, Motorola SC 2400, and Lucent Series II base stations. A version for the Nortel Networks Metro Cell cellular base station will be available in third quarter 1999.

The smart antenna connects with a CDMA base station to exploit a cell site's unused capacity. Using the system's Sector Synthesis capabilities, operators can match a site's antenna pattern to its traffic patterns. Traffic loads can be more evenly balanced across sectors, with more lightly loaded sectors reconfigured so that they carry more traffic, putting their idle capacity to use. SpotLight 2000 delivers a targeted approach to adding CDMA capacity that boosts network efficiency, enabling operators to increase minutes of use per CDMA carrier frequency by 30% or more.