LOS ANGELES, Sept. 11 -- Microwave Photonics Inc. has announced the launch of its global operations and has opened its headquarters in Los Angeles, Calif., following its first round of funding and its spinout from UK telecom giant British Telecommunications plc. Barry Hall has been appointed CFO of the new operations, and Larry Crawford was named vice president of engineering. Hall was formerly CFO at Earthlink Networks and previously was CEO at California Amplifier. Crawford has had engineering management roles at Malibu Networks and California Amplifier. After a decade of research and product development, Microwave Photonics was spun out from British Telecommunications plc and was the recipient of key intellectual properties in the area of wireless switching and distributed antenna systems. The company said it has received funding from New Venture Partners to execute its business plan. The company has developed a new wireless access infrastructure system based on its patented switched distributed antenna technologies. "For the first time in the history of wireless systems, capacity and services in a mobile network can be configured dynamically with demand," the company said in a statement. "Wireless carriers benefit from the significant cost savings. Additionally, wireless operators will be able to concurrently provision multiple wireless services, including 2G, 3G and WiFi from a single common access infrastructure," said Maurizio Vecchione, Microwave Photonics' CEO. Microwave Photonics also operates a development laboratory near Cambridge, England. For more information, visit: www.microwavephotonics.com