ISER Joins Venture to Build Fuel-Cell Buses
Vista-based Datron World Communications Inc. hopes to make waves in the land mobile radio market.
Datron is teaming with Maryland-based Racal Communications Inc. to co-develop radios for a federal network called the Public Safety Wireless Network (PSWN), an estimated $800 million market. The radios will be manufactured in Vista.
The market is a result of a federal mandate that all federal land mobile radio users be narrow band compliant by Jan. 1, 2005. Basically what the standard does is unclog the airwaves by creating more channels. The standard is expected to improve interoperability between state, local and federal agencies.
The new mandate will also open a market which has been primarily dominated by Motorola, said David Hyde, president of Datron World Communications, a subsidiary of Datron Systems Inc., also in Vista.
“In the past, if you bought a Motorola land radio and your buddy bought from a competitor, they weren’t compatible,” Hyde said. “Now it won’t matter who you buy it from because all those radios will talk to each other.”
Hyde said Motorola will continue to dominate the federal mobile land radio market, but he said Datron and Racal will net a nice share of the market, as much as 10 percent.
The federal PSWN market is estimated to be worth $1.2 billion, according to a June 1998 study by Booz-Allen Hamilton. Datron plans to compete for about $800 million of that market over the next five years.
Hyde said the PSWN market will also open up a new domestic market for Datron, which supplies remote sensing earth stations, satellite communications systems and VHF radios to worldwide markets. Currently, Datron sells its technology to nations with developing military organizations, such as Bangladesh.
“I’m very excited because if we’re able to establish a reasonable amount of business on the domestic side, it’s going to make our business a lot more consistent and predictable,” Hyde said. “At the same time, I think it’s a marvelous growth opportunity.”
He said Datron World Communications plans to double the number of the firm’s current 150 employees in the next two years.
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Fueling Up: ISE Research Corp. (ISER) is driving its core technology to the worldwide fuel cell industry.
The San Diego-based company has formed an alliance with Ohio-based Thor Industries, Inc. and Connecticut-based International Fuel Cells Inc. to build the world’s first commercially viable, fuel cell powered, zero emissions transit buses.
The first bus is expected to be built by mid-2001.
Under the agreement, ISER, which designs and manufactures specialized electrical and electronic components that enable heavy-duty vehicles to operate with electric power, will provide its fuel cell integration and fueling technology for the buses. It is ISER’s first major joint venture involving its hybrid-electric drive systems for buses and trucks.
Thor Industries, a $1 billion company, is the largest mid-sized bus builder and the second largest recreation vehicle manufacturer in the United States. IFC fuel cells have powered every NASA space shuttle mission.
“It gives us a lot of credibility,” ISER Chairman Michael Simon said about the alliance. “It also puts us right in the middle of the push to develop fuel cells.”
Simon said the potential worldwide market for fuel cell powered vehicles such as buses is in the tens of billions.
Bits & Bytes: Carlsbad’s kinzan.com has designed a Web application for Chase Merchant Services, L.L.C. to help small business owners develop an Internet presence. Kinzan.com’s eWEBuilder will provide Chase merchants with a complete E-business solution, including a secure, comprehensive, step-by-step online Web building tool with domain name registration, free listings with top search engines, online payment set-up and traffic and sales reporting tools. Chase Merchant Services is a joint venture between First Data Merchant Services Corp., the leading bank card transaction processor, and The Chase Manhattan Bank, one of the largest bank card issuers in the United States. Systems Engineering Associates (SEA) in Mission Valley has merged with NextLeft, Inc., a Los Angeles-based Internet solutions and services firm. While financial terms of the merger weren’t released, company officials said no layoffs are planned for SEA, which currently employees about 65 people. SEA’s name will also change to NextLeft. In April, NextLeft acquired C14 productions, a San Diego-based Internet strategy, branding and development firm.
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