LTE  |  2018-04-12

Atos Acquires Private LTE Networks Specialist Air-Lynx

Source: The Critical Communications Review | Gert Jan Wolf editor

The acquisition will allow Atos to complement its existing portfolio of PMR and LTE tactical solutions and play a leading role in the expanding market for professional mobile radio (PMR) evolution to the LTE and 5G standard.

Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, announced that it has acquired Air-Lynx, a French manufacturer of next-generation professional radio networks based on 4G LTE market standards. This acquisition will allow Atos to complement its existing portfolio of PMR and LTE tactical solutions and play a leading role in the expanding market for professional mobile radio (PMR) evolution to the LTE and 5G standard.

Founded in 2013, start-up Air-Lynx designs compact professional radio network devices based on LTE. Air-Lynx is revolutionizing tactical LTE solutions with a range of products that focus on fast deployment, ease of use and high resilience.

"This acquisition perfectly complements Atos’ capacity in PMR and LTE tactical solutions, which includes the Hoox for mission line of tactical LTE devices, PMR integration and maintenance services and recording products." said Cyril Dujardin, Atos Senior VP, Mission-Critical Systems, Big Data & Security Division. "In January, the Siemens CVC acquisition provided us with strong skills and solutions for PMR-based tactical communications. Now, with the groundbreaking Air-Lynx technology, Atos can deliver end-to-end tactical LTE solutions that are secure and resilient, but also fast to deploy and easy to use."

Deployed in a few minutes, Air-Lynx solutions are frequency-agile and ultra-compact, making it possible to easily interoperate with existing professional networks, add capabilities and extend signal coverage. Air-Lynx addresses the defense and mission-critical markets, as well as safe cities and Industry 4.0 applications such as IoT networks. In addition, their ease of deployment makes it possible to provide 'last mile' 4G LTE coverage in remote areas.

Air-Lynx won a Milipol Innovation Award in November 2017 with its Manpack ALM 17000, the first light portable 4G LTE radio network that solves the communication challenges in tactical operations (military network, security forces, public safety and first aid). In less than 2 minutes, users have a high-speed data connection and push-button access to voice and video.