Daniel Bland, CEO of 5BARz International Inc., recently issued the following letter to shareholders corresponding to the filing of the company’s Q1 financials. 5BARz International is a San Diego based producer of patented cellular network technology that strengthens weak cellular signals to deliver high quality signals for voice, data, and video reception on cell phones and other cellular equipped devices.
Dear Shareholders,
In conjunction with the recent filing of our 1st quarter financials I would like to take this opportunity to give you an update on our progress as we begin commercialization of our 5Barz Network Extender device. As most of you know we officially launched the 5Barz Network Extender on February 25th in Barcelona during the Mobile World Congress. The response by the wireless industry was extremely positive and confirmed our belief that the industry is looking for a solution to improve coverage in poor coverage areas within their networks. The following details the steps we are taking to commercialize the 5Barz Network Extender.
January / February = Pre-Barcelona / Mobile World Congress
We spent the first two months of the quarter largely focused on finalizing the technology development in preparation for our official product launch during Mobile World Congress, the largest conference in all of Telecom annually. On February 25th, we held an invitation only event at the Majestic Hotel in Barcelona, Spain which was well attended by industry luminaries, executives, investors and the press from around the world. Our presentation, which was mc’ed by a top executive from Telecom Italia, started with Gil Amelio, our Chairman, giving a wonderful opening speech about 5Barz potential to “change the world of telecom and mobile,” what we now refer to as the “I believe” speech. I had the privilege to follow Gil and unveiled the 5Barz Network Extender then introduced Naresh Soni, our CTO, who highlighted the incredible leaps forward made by the company in its technology and product development. You can visit our website at www.5barz.com to watch a video of the presentation in its entirety. Since Barcelona we have been preparing to deliver 5Barz Network Extender devices to our collaboration partner for testing and qualification on their network. We expect to complete delivery within the next couple of weeks. We will issue a press release upon shipping devices to our collaboration partner.
March / April / May = Post Barcelona
While Barcelona proved to be a watershed moment for 5Barz, the ten weeks that have followed have proven to be as equally, if not more, important to the growth and success of our company. Due to the overwhelming response from the Barcelona event, many market opportunities have become available to us in various regions around the world. As such, during the next quarter we intend to begin shipping 5Barz Network Extender devices, for initial testing, to multiple network carriers, in four different market regions. Our focus since Barcelona has been working in each of the four regions simultaneously. They include Latin America (LATAM), India, Africa and here in the United States. Some further detail is provided below:
- LATAM, for the moment, is our most mature regional opportunity. We have been working directly with the carriers in the region for several years and have built a deep knowledge base and strong contacts all of which will be necessary for us to execute our business plan in the LATAM region. We look forward to the delivery of devices to the network carriers in the immediate future;
- India is the second largest, by population, market in the world. Naresh and I recently visited Bangalore, Mumbai as well as Delhi to set up our local business development team as well as meet with many of the carriers, key executives, and begin the process of building our Indian market business plan. In short we found India’s mobile market is still growing and maturing though the network infrastructure has seemingly not caught up to the growing demand, hence, increasing congestion significantly as well as poor coverage in many areas of India. These are ideal market conditions for the 5Barz Network Extender.
- Africa is yet another incredible opportunity for us. We have initiated our business development efforts in Africa and have met with all of the major carriers. Africa is currently the fastest growing mobile market in the world and given the similar infrastructure conditions as India is a market greatly in need of our solution.
- The United States. The US is our home market where we have the most intimate understanding of the nuances and issues the industry faces. We have met with key executives at the two largest carriers, and both are eager to begin testing the 5Barz Network Extender on their networks. Given our contacts, access and current management team the US market opportunity is relatively easy for us to penetrate but requires that the 4G version of our technology be ready for adoption which we expect to deliver in the third quarter of this year.
As you can see we have a lot going on in many different time zones. Since our product launch in Barcelona I am very pleased with the speed at which we are executing on our business plan and strategy. To that end, we recently announced a manufacturing partnership with Flextronics, whom we consider to be the number one manufacturer of consumer electronic products in the world. The Flextronics deal along with the many carriers around the world who are eagerly awaiting the 5Barz Network Extender to begin testing and qualification on their respective networks shows undoubtedly, that our product and technology solution has the potential to be the answer the industry has been looking for in the last mile of wireless connectivity.
While we have initiated business development activities in the four market regions detailed above, we continue to attract interest from telco’s in virtually every market region in the world. And over the next several months we will begin our business development efforts in those markets as we expand operations. In fact, the focus for the next quarter is about setting up our infrastructure in the four markets detailed above and delivering the 5Barz Network extender devices for testing and qualification to the network engineers. This will include hiring executives with regional knowledge that will work with our telco partners in designing and implementing product rollout strategies and ultimately securing purchase orders. In our opinion it is crucial that we establish the necessary infrastructure in our market regions so that we can fully develop and support our customers as our product is deployed and implemented by the telco networks around the world. Only until we have successfully set up our infrastructure and delivered devices for testing to the network engineers can we begin to accurately forecast sales volumes.
Regarding our shipment of 1,000 devices to Mexico we experienced unforeseen delays in the importation process as well as incurring substantial costs in handling and import duties. We are working with our customer to complete the sale and expect a successful resolution in the immediate future. Lastly, now that we are entering into commercialization we anticipate we will have a more steady flow of business development that will enable us to communicate to our shareholders on a more frequent basis. In closing I want to thank you all for your continued support and interest in our company.
Sincerely,
Daniel Bland
CEO
For additional information, visit the company’s website at www.5barz.com
