Cohere Technologies Focused on 5G Fixed Wireless Access: Jeff Kagan

Video source: YouTube, Cohere Technologies

Over the years there have been many creative solutions from companies with big ideas to help companies in the wireless industry to send more data through limited spectrum. Some of these have worked while others have struggled. A new company called Cohere Technologies is one of these companies with an interesting and new solution for the growing wireless data bottleneck.

Cohere Technologies has the attention of investors and networks both nationwide and worldwide. In February 2022, the company closed on a $46 million Series D round of financing, led by Koch Investments Group with new strategic investments from VMware, Juniper Networks and Intel Capital. Existing investors Lightspeed Ventures, NEA and Telstra Ventures also participated.

According to Crunchbase, Cohere's round was executed at a post-money valuation of $500 million.

Will the company's technology become a real solution to an ongoing and growing problem in the wireless industry? Let’s take a closer look.

Qualcomm, Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung, AT&T, Verizon 5G fixed wireless

This company and its solutions are still in the early innings. We’ll have to wait and see how well Cohere performs in this market. If its solution works, it will help all wireless carriers. Today, it is still just in the testing stages.

This space is becoming quite crowded, but this is an interesting company with an interesting solution to the ongoing problem of limited wireless data spectrum availability.

Other players in this 5G fixed wireless access include Qualcomm, Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung, Huawei, Mimosa Networks, Siklu Communication, Ltd, AT&T and more.

Need for 5G Fixed Wireless Access or FWA solutions

Wireless data spectrum has been scarce since the industry started moving in this direction more than a decade ago with the Apple iPhone and Google Android smartphones.

There is simply a limited supply of wireless data spectrum available, while the level of usage continues to increase, year after year.

That means we need to come up with solutions like splitting the single wireless data signal into several different channels to handle ever increasing usage.

When this growth wave started, smartphone leaders were Blackberry, Nokia and Motorola. Then Apple iPhone and Google Android entered the picture and completely and rapidly transformed the industry.

The demand for wireless data exploded and continues to do so today with no end in sight.

5G wireless data spectrum shortage is a real and growing problem

Back then we had a few hundred wireless data apps and plenty of spectrum.

Today, we have millions of apps and usage that continues to grow.

And as the industry moved from 3G to 4G, we saw demand skyrocket. We use wireless data spectrum to watch live TV, listen to music and talk shows, watch videos on LinkedIn, Facebook and elsewhere, order a ride with Uber and Lyft and so much more.

Now as we move from 4G to 5G, that rapid growth continues to the next level with other industries like self-driving cars, telehealth and so many others.

5G wireless data demand continues is rapid growth curve

Over time, we have had several solutions to this growing problem. We have developed many new ways to send multiple streams of data over each band of the spectrum.

This has helped the industry manage to keep up with the enormous growth in demand, something which continues to grow.

Now with 5G, growth in demand continues to rise at a rapid rate. Plus, 5G is enabling other companies in other industries to get into the wireless business.

All this puts even more strain on existing spectrum capacity.

Qualcomm, Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung, AT&T, Verizon, Cisco, Intel

There are many companies, large and small, all working to resolve this data logjam which has been with us for more than a decade already.

Many companies see incredible growth opportunities in the 5G wireless space because of this. Think Qualcomm, Ericsson, Nokia, Intel, Cisco, Huawei and many others, large and small.

Cohere is a small upstart with big ideas and potential solutions which still need to be tested. Will they solve our growing problem or at least help us manage the growth?

As a matter of fact, this huge and rapid wireless growth opportunity will impact every corner of the economy as we move forward.

That’s great news for our economy, but we must provide more bandwidth as demand continues to explode with growth.

Cohere Technologies focuses on how we will send more data

Rapid growth has been with us since the first iPhone and Android hit the marketplace more than a decade ago. It will also continue to grow and put enormous stress on the current wireless data spectrum problem.

How we send even more data over the wireless data networks is the problem on which Cohere is squarely focused.

Cohere Technologies uses software inside wireless equipment to enable more effective and efficient use of the wireless data spectrum.

I’ve heard this before from several other companies over the last decade or two. They were all great ideas with interesting technology. Some have been successful. Others have struggled.

Cohere CEO Ray Dolan says the company's technology increases network capacity

Ray Dolan, Cohere Technology CEO, says the company's technology increases network capacity in trials.

While that is great, Cohere still must continue to move forward with tests and trials on actual networks to make sure it can handle the pressure of an ever-changing demand curve.

This technology has promising potential, but it is important to understand that there is still more ground to cover, moving from trials to real-life usage on existing wireless networks.

There are still so many questions to be answered:

• Can this technology handle the intense pressure of a live wireless network?
• How will it handle sudden stress on geographically limited areas like a concert or sporting event?
• How easily will it gear up when demand is high and throttle back when it’s lower?
• Will this solve the wider problem or be limited to certain areas for certain reasons?

While there are still so many questions that have to be answered, Cohere and companies like it are working to solve our real problems with spectrum shortage.

Cohere Technologies creating 5G fixed wireless spectrum software

So, while we are still in the early stages of testing this new technology, it does capture the imagination.

This is a potential solution to a growing problem created by limited wireless data spectrum availability in a rapidly growing industry.

We’ve been dealing with this wireless data spectrum shortage problem for more than a decade.

So far, as an industry we have managed to keep our heads above water. Let’s hope we find more ideas and solutions like this one to solve the larger and longer-term problem in the wireless industry.

I’ll be keeping my eyes on Cohere Technologies and all the other companies with interesting solutions to this ongoing wireless problem.

Jeff Kagan is an Equities News columnist. Kagan is a Wireless Analyst, Technology Analyst and Commentator who follows Telecom, Pay TV, Cloud, AI, IoT, TeleHealth, Healthcare, Automotive, Self-Driving cars and more. Email him at [email protected]. His web site is www.jeffKAGAN.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeffkagan and on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-kagan/.

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Equities News Columnist: Jeff Kagan

Source: Equities News