Wireless infrastructure provider Westell Technologies experienced a sequential decline in the in-building wireless (IBW) revenue in fiscal Q2, mainly due to lower sales in commercial repeaters, RF system components, and passive DAS conditioners, the company said in a statement.
In fiscal Q2, ended September 30, the company recorded overall revenues of $2.61 million in the IBW segment, down compared to $2.92 million in the year-ago quarter.
During the period, the firm’s overall revenues amounted to $7.6 million, down compared to $9 million in the same quarter the previous year.
In a conference call with investors, the company’s CEO Tim Duitsman said that Westell is devoting more resources to its In-Building Wireless business and in particular to IBW’s public safety offerings.
“Public safety is a promising business, driven by strong market demand as an expanding number of local jurisdictions are requiring public safety coverage in commercial buildings. We’re addressing that demand with the successful introduction of our new family of Class A repeaters and a new licensing agreement that provides greater control of our manufacturing lead times, inventory and costs,” the executive said.
“We expect to begin shipping product to customers under this new license agreement in our fiscal fourth quarter. In addition, this new agreement affords us the opportunity to expand our public safety product offerings. As part of this refocusing effort, we are deemphasizing our activities related to OnGo and the CBRS market. We are looking at large investments and field trials, inventory and additional sales and engineering personnel,” he added.
Duitsman also said that “the CBRS market is increasingly accredited with large competitors, product margins are eroding, and large rollouts are delayed into the second half of calendar 2020”. He also stressed that the company moved those resources to other IBW projects with better payback.
“We are beginning to turn the company around and drive revenue growth and profitability by developing new products for In-Building Wireless, fiber connectivity and intelligent site monitoring bringing on new customers to expand Westell’s customer base and managing our expenses, while we invest in the most promising new product areas.”