Free space optics (FSO) is a technology which has been repeatedly hailed as a solution to rising capacity demands and spectrum shortage, but it has never quite made it to the commercial mainstream. That has seen several players fall by the wayside, and the latest is AOptix, which is reported to be ceasing operations this month.
According to LightReading, AOptix will sell its physical assets at auction next week but is also trying to find a buyer for its intellectual property. The company was founded in 2000, one of the times when FSO was hitting the headlines amid a telecoms bubble. It focused mainly on defence projects and raised two early rounds of funding worth over $30m.
In 2011, the company developed a product which combined its optical technology with millimeter wave radio, and it secured a Series E funding round worth $42m in 2012 on the back of that innovation, targeting high speed backhaul. It raised more capital, reportedly to the tune of $45m, last summer, bringing its total investment over 15 years to perhaps $150m.
But despite plenty of interest in its technology, and some trials and deployments, it seems that its solution was too expensive to gain mass uptake even as carriers increasingly shift towards wireless backhaul, and as millimeter wave technologies move to the center of 5G thinking. One source told LightReading that AOptix’s hybrid radio-FSO units could cost up to $80,000 a link.