Antenna79
Operating Status: Inactive
Antenna79, Inc. was an Encinitas, California consumer electronics company that developed signal-boosting antenna cases and accessories for smartphones.
Founded
2014Antenna79, Inc. was an Encinitas, California consumer electronics company that developed signal-boosting antenna cases and accessories for smartphones.
Antenna79's distinguishing capability was passive coupling-antenna engineering: its cases and accessories carried embedded antenna structures that coupled parasitically with a phone's internal antenna to enlarge the effective antenna system without powered amplification. The approach was protected by a United States patent portfolio naming the company as applicant on radiation-redirecting external case designs, alongside complementary patents and pending applications covering the antenna environment and combined antenna-battery structures.
The company also pointed to an engineering organization recruited from Qualcomm and LifeProof and founded by PhD scientists with training from MIT, UCLA, and the University of Manchester, and it participated in University of California San Diego engineering programs. Retail distribution through Best Buy for the Reach Antenna and carrier placement for its cases gave the company consumer reach unusual for a hardware startup of its size.
Source: web.archive.org
Antenna79 competed in the consumer signal-boosting accessory category, where its passive coupling-antenna cases vied with powered amplifiers and repeater systems for consumers seeking better reception. The category's proposition narrowed as carriers deployed network improvements that reduced the benefit of phone-side signal accessories, and independent reviews of the period treated the products' claims as promising but variable in real-world conditions.
The company's own web presence ended in 2018 and it stopped filing with the SEC after 2016, consistent with an exit from the market during that period. Its radiation-reducing antenna approach has continued to appear in successor products, including the Gadget Guard Alara line and Pong-brand cases operated by Penumbra Brands, indicating durable demand for the underlying technology even as the original company ceased operations.
Antenna79's buyer-facing offerings centered on antenna-coupling accessories for smartphones. The Reach79 line, launched at CES 2015, comprised rugged iPhone 6 and 6 Plus cases with an embedded gold-plated coupling antenna that the company said could roughly double signal strength, priced at $59.99 and $69.99 and later sold as the R79X case through its own storefront. The Reach Antenna, introduced in May 2015, was a $39.99 attachable antenna that adhered to the back of an iPhone 6 or 6s and coupled with its internal antenna, sold exclusively through Best Buy.
Source: web.archive.org
The company's Pong brand offered cases with a patented micro-thin gold-plated antenna designed to reduce the user's exposure to cell phone radiation while maintaining signal, and the company also marketed custom antenna design and licensing services to carriers, device OEMs, and accessory makers. Archived listings of the brands page present Reach79, Reach Antenna, Pong, and the licensing practice as the company's principal offering families.
Source: web.archive.org