xG opens its doors, closes its mouth

I've not written about my old Floridian muckers in xG Technology for a while, because there's not been anything to write about. That's changed.

There have been press releases and intense online acrimony, true, but those have been indistinguishable from previous press releases and prior intense online acrimony. Evidence for the company's claims - that it's created a breakthrough wireless data technology that can operate without interference on interference-ridden public radio spectrum, with far lower power requirements and superior performance to any other - has been no more available to date than before. Which is to say, not at all.

You may remember that my previous attempts to find out what was going on foundered on the company's insistence on my signing a non-disclosure agreement before telling me anything substantial. Not much good to a journalist, that. And while I did have a number of people feeding me behind-the-scenes gossip, they were all anonymous and uncheckable, and that's not much good to a journalist either. I lack the elite skills that can turn such stuff into gold; give me a chunk of sparkly stuff and I can perhaps tell iron pyrites from the real thing, but I'm no good at that trick when the specimen is kept behind a veil.

So I am extremely happy to report that there's a new press release from xG that differs from previous ones in two important ways. One is interesting but not by itself of much use; the other is more intriguing.

On the face of it, the press release seems to directly address the biggest bugbear, that nobody's been allowed to get their mitts on the goodies without being bound hand and foot to the xG corporate machine. Now, the company says, "xG Technology is opening its lab facilities in Sunrise, Florida to media and analysts in order to preview its new technology."

Which is great, assuming that you can get to Sunrise, Florida, that you're allowed to carry out the sort of evaluation that can tell you something useful, and that you can write about it as you see fit. I can't drop by, but doubtless there are journalists over there who can (if that's you, please get in touch: we should talk. I'll be delighted to share everything I have, and all I ask is you make good use of it). The rest - well, I just can't tell from the press release what the details of the open labs are. I'm happy to assume that open means what it says, and that visitors will be allowed to do and write what they like.

What's more interesting, though, is what the press release doesn't say. There are two reasons advanced why xG is a good idea:

* xMax transmits over unlicensed spectrum—the same as baby monitors and cordless phones. Major national cellular carriers paid billions of dollars for licensed spectrum that they recoup from customers.

* xMax was built as a totally Internet-based digital system from top to bottom—an extremely cost efficient communication approach.

Of the claimed breakthrough core technology, the 'Flash Signal' modulation method, there is no mention. You can still find it talked about on xG's own website, as well as on other sites where it's roundly attacked as basically unworkable, but there's no promise in the press release that what you'll see in Sunrise, Florida, will actually use it.

An odd omission. If, as I suspect, the current technology uses more mainstream methods, then it's very questionable that they'll be able to cope with the jungle of unlicensed spectrum any better than anyone else.

As always - and for the better part of a decade now - I'll just have to reserve judgement until some actual facts appear.