Army tapping a local business for innovative cell phone service

SARASOTA - XG Technology Inc., a local firm harnessing the Internet for a new generation of telecommunications technology, said it has been awarded a contract to deploy its xMax product at the U.S. Army's Fort Bliss Desert Training areas.

The "cognitive cellular network" will provide mobile communications services over a large area of Texas and New Mexico. Fort Bliss is the Army's largest training operation and a leading center for the testing of new weapons and communications systems.

The xMax trial is being jointly sponsored

The xMax trial is being jointly sponsored by the U.S. Army Signal Center of Excellence and the Army's Communications-Electronics Research, Development, and Engineering Center, or CERDEC.

XMax operates on a free, unlicensed set of frequencies and by using Voice over Internet Protocol, known as VoIP, in place of traditional cellular technology for mobile phones.