New Mexico College Inching Closer to Becoming First Campus in Country with 5G Wireless Access

Central New Mexico Community College Teams with OptiPulse, an Albuquerque Startup Aiming to Beam Blazing Fast Internet to Masses Via Laser Technology

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Central New Mexico Community College (CNM)

May 30, 2019, 11:11 ET

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., May 30, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Students at Central New Mexico Community College are on the cusp of being able to surf the ultimate 5G Wi-Fi signal – one enabled by laser technology providing a 10 Gigabits per second (Gbps) wireless network that's up to 100 times faster than a regular network.

That blazing speed is thanks to OptiPulse, an Albuquerque startup founded by former Sandia National Laboratories scientist John Joseph, who graduated from Central New Mexico Community College (CNM) in 1980 with an associate degree in Laser Electro Optics before advancing his education and becoming a laser technology inventor.

OptiPulse uses devices that consist of an array of lasers that speed up delivery and cut costs. OptiPulse technology enables 5G cellular network deployment faster, cheaper, safer and greener than other 5G efforts. Optipulse's technology uses infrared lasers to beam signals from small devices, providing an attractive alternative to other technologies such as millimeter wave technology that studies have shown can pose health risks to people. The laser-array devices, recently installed on a section of CNM's Main Campus, are operational. Currently in a testing phase, they're expected to be ready to transmit high-speed wireless data to students in mid-June, followed by an operational 5G testbed at the campus before the end of 2019.

The installation is a pilot project with plans to expand it across all of CNM's campuses, then far beyond. CNM partnered with OptiPulse for many reasons, including the goal to bring affordable high-speed internet to underserved populations and the cutting-edge learning opportunities that faster data speeds would open up to students, such as augmented reality, virtual reality, 3D-rendering, holographic displays and much more. "Springing from CNM's commitment to use our technology on campus, we're attracting resources to accelerate our fast-to-market plan," says OptiPulse CEO Mathis Shinnick.

CNM Ingenuity, the college's 501(c)3 enterprise arm, made a small equity investment in OptiPulse because it saw the awesome long-term potential of this breakthrough technology, including its ability to bridge the digital divide for underserved populations. CNM Ingenuity CEO Kyle Lee says OptiPulse is not only poised to revolutionize how the internet is delivered, but it could also connect students to new career paths.

"If their product comes to market, we would create a training program as part of the partnership. CNM would train the technicians who would install the OptiPulse devices," Lee says.

For Joseph, who invented the technology, the long-term goal is to create a network across the country, then the world, that disrupts how the internet is delivered. He wants everyone to have fast and reliable internet access, just like most people have fast and reliable access to electricity.

"We're not in this just for our success as a company – we're in this to change the current paradigm for net neutrality," Joseph says.

SOURCE Central New Mexico Community College (CNM)