$3m could launch Zen insights into practice

By CHRIS BARTON

Christchurch company Indranet Technologies is seeking $3 million capital investment for a technology it claims has the potential "to change the way the world communicates."

The only problem for potential investors - who can buy in for $2 a share in a 250 share parcel - is that the technology is too top secret to look at.

"We don't want to show anything. It's far too sensitive. We are quite vulnerable - any large corporate could snoop on our ideas," said co-inventor of the technology Dr Louis Arnoux.

That leaves would-be punters to pore over Indranet's prospectus (www.indranet.co.nz) and an analysis of the technology by Jean Paul Vignal of JP2 Consultants in California who states:

"I have found the way you have succeeded in incorporating the long standing experience of one of your inventors in the field of critical Zen epistemology fresh and rewarding ... While the potential of this approach for the development of artificial intelligence has been acknowledged in the Western world for some time ... it had not until now translated into practice in the domains of telecommunications where, I agree, it has great potential."

Dr Arnoux said it was his thinking about Zen riddles that "gave me the insight that there is a different way of doing telecommunications that no one had done."

By combining these insights with the work of fellow inventor Andrew McGregor, Indranet - named after Hindu god Indra - was born.

According to the prospectus, during 1999 the company "intends to list initially on the New Zealand Sharemarket's Number Two Board and within two years to seek a listing on the NASDAQ exchange."

Meanwhile, investors may take comfort that US and New Zealand patents are pending for "an autopoetic network system endowed with distributed artificial intelligence for the supply of high speed multimedia telesthesia, telemetry, telekinesis, telepresence, telemanagement, telecommunications and data processing services."

It's also clear that six other Christchurch-based "professional investors" are already convinced, owning shares in the company which shows a current share capital balance of $340,350.

Like all high tech ventures, Indranet is high risk, Dr Arnoux said, but also potentially high reward. He said the key value of the company lay with the software.

The wireless technology employs radio spectrum in the 20-65Ghz range, but differs from existing cellular transmissions in that it doesn't require cell sites to operate. Instead it employs a series of "Minders" - essentially a laptop computer, GPS receiver and radio wave transmitter with a small aerial - dotted around the country on the roofs of buildings which "mesh" together to form an independent, self-regulating network.

Indranet claims it can provide bandwidth of at least 100 megabits per second - enough to deliver "a range of advanced entertainment and communications services, such as simultaneous high quality video phone, high speed Internet access, e-commerce, and video-on-demand."

But to roll out such a network in New Zealand, Indranet customers will also need access to the LMDS (local multipoint distribution system) frequency which was sold by auction earlier this year and snapped by Clear Communications and Formus International. Another company New Zealand Frequencies - in which both Mr McGregor and Dr Arnoux are shareholders was the unsuccessful third bidder.