Services
Communication Services
AMEX: XWC

World Wireless Communications, Inc.

2670 Greenwood Plaza Blvd - Penthouse
Englewood, CO 80111
Phone: 303-221-1944

David D. Singer
Chairman, President and
Chief Executive Officer

Interview conducted by:
Diane Reynolds, Co Publisher

February 2002 

Bio of CEO, 

David D. Singer
Chairman, Chief Executive Office and President
World Wireless Communications, Inc. 

David D. Singer has been the president of World Wireless Communications, Inc. since November 1996 and CEO/Chairman since February 1997.  Mr. Singer also serves as the Chairman/CEO of X-traWeb, Inc. and Chairman/CEO of X-traWeb Europe, Spa.

Singer brings a wealth of executive-level management experience to World Wireless Communications, Inc.  Before joining World Wireless, Singer was the president and Chief Operating Officer of Navtech Industries, Inc., an electronic contract manufacture.  Prior to taking the position of president/COO of Navtech, Singer was the company’s vice president of sales and marketing, where he brought the company from $200,000 in annual revenues to $8.2 million in annual revenues in 2 ½ years.  As president and COO, he expanded the company’s operation to the Navajo reservation in Shiprock, NM.  Working with United States Senator Pete Domenici and then United States Congressman Bill Richardson (now Secretary of the Department of Energy), Singer’s company was the first company to move to a Native American reservation under legislation sponsored by Senator Domenici.

Prior to joining Navtech, Singer was a Vice President of The First Municipal Leasing Division of Banc One.  At Banc One he signed the first Federal Energy Share Savings agreement with the United States Postal Service, financed energy renovation projects throughout Colorado, Florida and Ohio, and developed the financing structure for co-generation projects for local, state and federal projects.  In addition, he was successful in obtaining $30 million for energy conservation renovations for Colorado’s schools through allocation of oil overcharge refunds received by the State of Colorado.

He also served as President of Highland Energy Group, President of CSL Energy Controls, as a special consultant to the General President of the Sheetmetal Workers Union, and Project Manager for Hatzel & Buehler.

Mr. Singer was a founder of the National Association of Energy Service Contractors, and served on their financial committee, member of IEEE, Association of Energy Energizers, Association of Professional Engineers and Association of Municipal Energy Managers.

He attended the University of Michigan and graduated from Lawrence Institute of Technology.

About World Wireless Communications, Inc.

World Wireless Communications Inc. was formed in 1995 as an engineer and manufacturer of wireless electronic products.  Through growth and acquisitions, World Wireless Communications has expanded into a leading designer, developer, and engineer of highly advanced wireless communications systems, technology and products.  Our principal focus is to develop technology that surmounts communication barriers.

As an innovator of leading wireless communications technology, our experienced engineering team specializes in designing wireless communication systems and products around the spread spectrum broadband and other “non-licensed” radio frequency spectrums.  The wireless technology and systems that we develop are designed to overcome the communication barriers that companies and individuals face today.

Developing products for today’s communication issues requires identifying the appropriate technology to best suit the type of information that is to be transmitted.  The factors of speed, cost, quality, reliability, and security must also be considered.  We take all these factors into consideration when we produce our products and take pride in our award winning achievements.

The company is headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado, an area of the Denver Technology Center (DTC).

CEOCFOinterviews: What is your company’s main focus?

Mr. Singer: Due to industry trends, our company focus is in the utility sector; we have adapted our wireless technology and combined it with our web-enabling capabilities to provide utility companies specific commercial and industrial applications.  Our goal is to provide utilities with the ability to gather information on where their customers are demanding the most energy, all on a real-time basis. 

CEOCFOinterviews: Originally you were a wireless communications company and I am not sure if people were clear as to what industry you were focusing on.

Mr. Singer: We still are a wireless communications company and sell spread spectrum radios to many original equipment manufacturers (OEM’s).  When we initially began to develop our spread spectrum technology, our intent was to develop a way to securely and wirelessly transmit information in a cost effective manner.  By using the spread spectrum technology, we were able to provide a fast and reliable mode of communication with a government level of security for the information.  As a result, our clients incorporate our spread spectrum radios into their systems in order to provide secure supervisory control data acquisition (SCADA) capabilities.  We have a couple of customers that have adopted our radio frequency (RF) technology and use our radios as a form of communication between two existing stations. For example, a large entertainment complex in Orlando, Florida uses our radios for communication between different vehicles and their headquarters. They gather information such as the operating temperature in the engine, the RPM’s, and the running time of the engine.  Another example where our radios have been used is in a 2.4 Gigahertz telephone that was manufactured by Panasonic.  Their goal was to develop a cordless telephone that was able to receive calls further from the cradle as well as provide privacy and less interference than other models.  Our radios met their needs and assisted in developing a product that is still used today. 

CEOCFOinterviews: When did you decide to switch some of the technology from one area to the utilities?

Mr. Singer: During the phase of developing the RF connections with the SCADA systems, we knew that our products were a very good last mile solution for gathering information and putting it into a central collection area.  But from the central collection area, back to wherever the information was going to be used or processed, was a different issue.  Companies looked at using landlines, satellite systems, and fiber optic systems, all of which had to be available at specific locations.  As a result of this barrier, we began exploring how we could use the Internet since it is essentially available everywhere today, even in your pocket.  After extensive research and design, we developed the capability to connect devices to the Internet in a cost effective way. The Internet became the conduit to transmit data from the device to the central station for processing and back to the device. 

CEOCFOinterviews: And that is X-traWeb, correct?

Mr. Singer: Correct.  The new technology that we developed is called X-traWeb.  It enables us to connect various devices to the Internet in order to provide two-way access to the device.  The system consists of two devices, an X-Node, which takes the data from the device and converts it to a standard HTML format.  The X-Node then communicates with our X-Gate, which acts as the gateway to transmit that data to the Internet. We also incorporate our radio technology to gather the information.  For example, in a utility meter application, we may take, 10, 15, or 30 meters in a small utility area, equip each of them with one of our smaller spread spectrum radios, called a MicroHopper and an X-Node, which enables data to be collected and transmitted to a specific collection box.  At the collection box, we incorporate an X-Gate and another radio to transmit the information to the Internet via a LAN line, a DSL system, or Ethernet connection.  This application has proven to be a very cost effective and flexible way for utilities to monitor and balance their usage loads.  Once this system is in place, utilities will have the capabilities to provide their customers additional information.  For example, a residential customer could log onto a website that has his home address on it and see in real-time how much energy is being used at any given point during the day.  This will ultimately provide the customers the ability to control and monitor their energy usage, thus saving them money.

CEOCFOinterviews: The business summary is primarily focused on X-traWeb and then at the very end it mentions that the company also offers spread spectrum radios.  What is the ratio as far as revenues for the company?  Is it more towards the X-traWeb or the spread spectrum radios?

Mr. Singer: Our revenue stream is mostly from our spread spectrum radio sales because the X-traWeb technology is still being deployed in small quantities and on more of a beta test site basis.  However, this should be changing later this year as we begin to deploy larger X-traWeb systems.  The revenue ratio should begin to even out or tilt toward the X-traWeb side as this happens.

CEOCFOinterviews: Now, on the X-traWeb side of the business, do you see yourself going outside the U.S.?

Mr. Singer: Our focus is currently in the United States as we are currently working with a number of utilities that have agreed to install the system.  We have fourteen cooperative utilities, which are part of Cooperative ConNEXTions and the Touchstone energy group.  This happens to be the largest cooperative organization that works with the majority of rural utilities.  Our systems are currently in the mountain states; Colorado, Montana, Nevada, and North and South Dakota.   We are also working with some utilities on the west coast and east coast and are slowly moving into the mid-west and southeastern part of the U.S.  So we are pretty widespread coast to coast.  Our primary focus has been with the utilities that understand the benefits of automatic meter reading.  These companies have already made investments in other meter reading technologies and are now ready for the next step toward the more advanced systems.   The most common feedback is that they are looking for a system that is extremely flexible and has value added service capabilities.  Meter reading in many cases is the first step for utilities to establish a baseline of how much energy is being used, over what period of time, and what times of day.  They will ultimately expand that system into the commercial and industrial industry, which will monitor other pieces of equipment as well. 

Since the rural electrical cooperatives want to keep an upper edge in the market, their goal is to become more of a value added supplier to their customers that use energy.  As a result, we have been asked to provide them with our automatic meter reading system, which enables them to become a more integral part of their customer base.  They will have the ability to offer their customers more service in load management and in data sharing, which is very valuable from a customer and a company standpoint.

CEOCFOinterviews: Sometimes, especially in mountainous areas, you can run into “dead zones”.  Have you experienced this sort of situation and if you have, please explain how you deal with that type of situation.

Mr. Singer: Dead Zones can occur in many geographical areas, with high mountain density, or areas with large amounts of foliage.  In each customer situation, we look at the most viable way to get an Internet connection.  We prefer a wireless connection because it is more flexible for us; however, we have the capability to connect through a telephone line, a shared modem, an ISP, or an Ethernet.   It truly does not matter how we connect to the Internet; therefore, we look at the customer’s needs.  Some key determinants include finding out how often they want us to turn over the data?  In a residential situation, we are probably looking at one download per day; however, some of the larger commercial industrial facilities, require streaming information.   Therefore, this need really dictates the kind of connection required.

CEOCFOinterviews: I know you are located in Colorado, and you have a design and development facility there, but what about the manufacturing of the product?

Mr. Singer: We used to manufacture the product ourselves when we had an office in Salt Lake City.   However, several years ago we decided to focus on the technology side of the business, which is our core competence.  We concluded that in order to manufacture our products, we would have to invest several millions of dollars into our equipment base, and did not think it was a good investment.  So, we began outsourcing the manufacturing to local and off shore facilities.  To our surprise it has benefited us greatly.  We have actually reduced the cost of manufacturing significantly.  In one case, one product’s manufacturing cost was reduced by 30 to 40% because the manufacturer could obtain the large quantity purchasing discount.  This ultimately enables us to offer the same product at a lower price to our customers and still maintain the margins we are looking for internally. 

CEOCFOinterviews: A lot of people are outsourcing because they don’t have the manpower or equipment to keep up with the quantities that are required.

Mr. Singer:  This is true. There are not only equipment issues, but also inventory issues.  Each product requires specific components that need to be stocked, which requires a specific amount of capital.  In order to make inventory stock economical, a company must turn the inventory during the year.  We found that we could not turn the inventory enough to show a savings, therefore, we began to focus on designing the product, rather than manufacturing.

CEOCFOinterviews: As far as growth, I was reading through growth and acquisitions you would like to expand the company.   What kind of growth?

Mr. Singer: Our growth this year will result in revenue growth from the contracts we sign with the utilities.  We have been diligently working with a select group of utilities that have already bought into that concept of automatic meter reading.  They understand the benefits of utilizing this technology, which will help us work with them to implement it.  I think that we are getting very close to some of those agreements now and they should be substantial.  As we begin to close on some of the larger utility contracts, I still feel that the primary growth in our company will stem from the agreements we sign with the smaller rural utilities.  I believe that they will be very receptive to the technology and begin requesting installations of the system.  The smaller utility contracts will not only consist of automatic meter reading, but will also require other value added features, such as data hosting, billing and other support areas.  We are gearing up in these areas so that we are ready to provide our customers with more support functions as they go along. 

If you are dealing with the larger utilities, they already have those functions in place.   They are used to dealing with hundreds of thousands of customers, where rural utilities will typically have tens of thousands of customers.  However, not all large utilities necessarily have an IT base that enables them to provide all of those other services to their customers; therefore, we will work with them to provide custom packages to fit their exact needs.

CEOCFOinterviews: Acquisitions, do they play a roll with the future of this company?

Mr. Singer: Acquisitions will definitely play a roll in the future; however, I do not see it happening within the next six to nine months.  There are some areas such as IT services that we are looking into and as we begin to see things expand, I think it may be cost effective to bring these services in house, rather than outsourcing.  However, we must weigh the opportunity costs. 

CEOCFOinterviews: With the economy slowing down, especially within the last month and a half, has that affected your company?

Mr. Singer: No, on the contrary, we are seeing that the utility sector is really growing.  Just in the last thirty days we have received more inquiries from utilities than in the last six to eight months.  As we began releasing information on our new products, like the under glass solution for electric meters, we have attracted a lot of attention from the utility companies.  They are looking for a solution where they can unplug the old meter and plug in a new one.  We now have this capability, which has generated more interest for this product.  Some targeted companies that previously did not have much of an interest in our technology, are now calling and wanting to know how fast we can meet with them.  I think one of the reasons is we are getting closer to the point of summer demand schedules again and utilities are beginning to look at  how to meet their demands.  The problems were they did not have the information on a real-time basis.  I think utilities are beginning to heat up and really focus on their needs for advancing their systems and becoming more responsive to their customers.

CEOCFOinterviews: Your website, is it strictly for information to your customers?  What are all of the possibilities your website has and/or will have in the future?

Mr. Singer:  Actually, we are updating and redesigning our website design again.  If you look at it today, you will see we still have some reflections on what we were looking at from a marketing perspective a year and half ago.  We were looking at different industries, such as the vending industry, security industry and facilities management.  In the last 6 months, we have actually redirected the company focus more toward the utility industry, thus we are not emphasizing the other industries as much.  However, we still have the technology and if a customer calls tomorrow and says, “We want to install ten thousand restaurants” we can still respond.  What you will see in the next two or three months, is a new style web page that will be more interactive with the customers.   We have a demonstration site here in Colorado that is active on the website and will be apart of the new design in the future. We are also going to add features for customers so they can access things through a separate group of web pages.  I actually looked at some designs about a day or so ago and I think we are getting pretty close to having the site go live.

CEOCFOinterviews: From a potential investor’s standpoint, explain to them why they should look at your company and consider investing.

Mr. Singer: In order to invest in our company, an investor would have to first understand the utility market and where it is headed in the future.  Therefore, I would provide some background on the industry, its evolution and the current service demands from the companies. Then I would explain that there are many alternatives to meter reading and the utility company’s needs will determine what type of system is most cost effective. Currently, the utilities are looking for a two-way flexible system that allows more than just meter reading.  This is what we provide.  We are the only company today that can say this.  Plus, we use the Internet as the communication conduit, which is a non-invasive common platform and this seems to be a key factor for utilities.   Additionally, I would also want the investor to look at different reports from the industry experts, such as the national AMR Association.  Another feature that I have heard about in the last three or four weeks now is the investment opportunities seem to be in those undervalued stocks that are the mid or micro type investments and that is exactly where we sit today.  This type of investment opportunity has a very big upside and very little downside risk.

CEOCFOinterviews: Your Company is geared for the future right now.  You have everything right in place and it will be there.

Mr. Singer: Yes, I think we are prepared for the future and we have a good handle on where the marketplace is today.  We understand our customer’s needs and are able to deliver reliable, cost effective products that meet their needs.  We just had a meeting about a week ago with a very large utility in the west that went through a whole list of items and we were able to say, “yes” to everything.  The feedback has been very positive.  We are at the point now because our platform is standard, that we can customize each system for the utility without impacting the hardware portion of it.   The changes or additions our customers want to make to the system are just software changes, and we are very capable of making those changes.  On the other hand, our technology is very secure, so that no one can manipulate the system. 

CEOCFOinterviews: Does your company have the cash or capital available to handle all of the changes, to grow the company?

Mr. Singer: Yes, I think if you look at the support we have in our existing shareholder base, you would see that most of the shareholders have been with us for the last two or three years.  Our largest shareholder, a New York group has been with us since 1997 and they continue to acquire stock.  They are hanging in there and working with regarding our need for additional equity in the future.   We are also looking at some strategic partnerships with key utility companies.  So, I think we’re in a good position and I do not see any problems on the horizon.  I think we have positioned ourselves very well.

CEOCFOinterviews: At this point, is there anything that I’ve missed or overlooked about the company in general?

Mr. Singer: I think one of our biggest challenges is that we must educate the analysts that we are not strictly a wireless communications company, rather more of a load management, web-enabling company that provides energy companies the type of technology they need to help them manage their loads as well as their growth.  I just recently read a research report by Bank of America, that talked about this market segment and it discussed the growth opportunities, and this is the market segment where I see World Wireless Communications fitting.

CEOCFOinterviews:  Yes, it is a little misleading when you see the name World Wireless Communications.  You are in the communications service industry in the service sector but there is so much more behind the curtain for this company.