Two metro areas in Sun Belt states — Phoenix and Dallas-Fort Worth — are the starting points for a new machine-to-machine telecom network woven together by Ingenu.
The Rancho Bernardo company chose those two markets for its Machine Network because of the number of existing Internet of Things, or machine-to-machine, connections used there for transportation, utilities, industrial monitoring, security and public infrastructure. Much is second-generation connection technology that is due to be phased out.
“The Machine Network provides an ideal alternative to devices and applications that are currently connected via 2G cellular networks which will be ‘refarmed’ in the coming months to make way for higher bandwidth cellular technologies, which are not ideally designed for M2M/IoT connectivity,” said Tom Gregor, Ingenu’s president and general manager for public networks, in a prepared statement.
Ingenu said it plans to be in 30 major U.S. cities by the end of 2016. San Diego will get coverage in the first quarter of 2016.
Ingenu’s network uses a technology it calls RPMA, or Random Phase Multiple Access.
Some readers probably know Ingenu by its former name, On-Ramp Wireless Inc.
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Finding Mountains in Microchips: Sage Analytical Lab LLC, which occupies a Sorrento Mesa space full of high-tech equipment, has doubled its revenue in the last 12 months, managing partner Amir Khoshniyati said. The 3-year-old business looks at semiconductors, medical devices and other goods under high-tech magnifying instruments (think 3-D X-ray machines or focused ion beams) to find miniscule flaws.
“We are a hospital for microchips,” Khoshniyati said.
Failure analysis is one of Sage’s specialties. The close inspection its machines provide can also help executives and authorities detect counterfeit goods in the consumer space.
Company specialties include time-sensitive work. When big clients have too much work for their in-house equipment, or find it cheaper to use someone else’s, they call Sage for help.
Most customers are in San Diego, but the business has sales offices in Dallas and Phoenix and is looking into a San Jose office. “We’re not at capacity,” Khoshniyati said. And the company is hiring.
Moe Homayounieh is president of Sage Analytical.
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ViaSat Reports Earnings: Carlsbad satellite technology firm and broadband service provider ViaSat Inc. reported net income of $4.9 million in the second quarter ended Sept. 30, down almost 80 percent from net income of $23.9 million in the same quarter last year.
Last year’s second quarter was not typical, as it included a $39.7 million benefit from a legal settlement of an intellectual property dispute with Space Systems/Loral Inc.
ViaSat (Nasdaq: VSAT)’s revenue was $353.3 million, off 1.5 percent from $358.8 million in the same quarter last year.
Adjusted EBITDA in the recently ended quarter was $86.5 million, up 24 percent from the same quarter last year when the legal settlement is excluded. EBITDA stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
ViaSat said its six-month revenue of $697.7 million was a record high, up 2.9 percent from the first six months of the previous fiscal year.
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Going Electric: NRG eVgo has teamed up with the University of California, San Diego on two projects related to electric vehicles and the campus microgrid.
EVgo built a site to determine how owners of vehicle-charging stations can use solar power, battery storage and control systems to save money and provide services to the grid.
EVgo also plans to operate a fleet of nine bidirectional electric vehicles from Nissan and Honda to test how California might use vehicle-to-grid technology. It follows a similar project at the University of Delaware, where vehicles fed electricity into the grid.
NRG eVgo is part of NRG Energy Inc. (NYSE: NRG) based in New Jersey.
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Short Takes: Builders of the Perlan II high-altitude glider, including sponsor Airbus Group, subjected the long-winged aircraft to ground vibration testing in early November at ATA Engineering Inc. in Rancho Bernardo. The Perlan team will attempt to reach 90,000 feet in a flight planned for next summer in Argentina. … Qualcomm Inc. said Nov. 5 that it signed a deal to license its patent portfolio to China-based Huizhou TCL Mobile
Communication Co. Ltd. Under the deal, TCL will pay Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) royalty rates consistent with those worked out in the San Diego chip maker’s deal with Chinese regulators early this year. The deal with TCL covers third- and fourth-generation technology, including China-specific three-mode handsets. You say you’ve never heard of TCL? The company’s name is now on the Hollywood landmark formerly known as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. … HouseCall Pro co-founders Roland Ligtenberg and Reza Olfat won a 36-hour computer programming contest (also known as a hackathon) at Intuit Inc.’s QuickBooks Connect conference earlier this month in San Jose. Their HouseCall app connects a variety of household-service providers with customers (kind of like Uber does with drivers and passengers). … TiE South Coast plans to host a panel discussion titled “Will 3-D Printing Change the Way We Think?” on Nov. 17 at Janssen Research & Development, 3210 Merryfield Row. The evening includes an Indian dinner buffet at 6:30 p.m.; panelists begin their talk at 7:15. The event is open to nonmembers, and people get a price break when buying tickets in advance. For more information, visit http://southcoast.tie.org and look for the banner that says Upcoming Events.
Send San Diego technology news to bradg@sdbj.com.
