LightPointe, a designer and manufacturer of optical wireless products based on free-space optics (FSO) technology, and Huawei Technologies, an optical networking solution provider, have announced an expanded joint strategic partnership agreement.

The deal accelerates the delivery of optical wireless solutions to a broader base of service providers and enterprise customers worldwide. Under the terms of the extended OEM agreement, Huawei will sell and market LightPointe Flight optical wireless products in Europe, Southeast Asia, Middle East, Africa, Russia, and Latin America as part of Huawei's OptiX product family. As the result of a similar agreement signed in September 2003, Huawei already has gained market traction with LightPointe installations at all tier-one service providers in China.

LightPointe's optical wireless products provide high-bandwidth connectivity at a lower cost than fiber-optic cable. The Flight family, which is license free and immune from radio-frequency interference, is used for a range of applications, including LAN-to-LAN connectivity, network portability, network redundancy as well as mobile wireless backhaul for next-generation networks.