Westel hopes to crack US digital trunked radio market

Stuart Corner
Monday, 24 October 2005 16:32

IT Industry - Deals

Perth-based Westel Wireless Systems Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of ASX-listed IC2 Global, has secured a new US distributor for its APCO25 digital trunked radio infrastructure equipment.

APCO25 is the standard adopted by US public safety authorities for future mobile radio systems, and Westel is one of only a handful of manufacturers of network equipment worldwide. However its sale to date have been small. The government of its home state, Western Australia, recently embarked on a $28 million project to install an APCO25 network for its police force, but awarded the entire contract to Motorola.

The new distributor, Icom America, is a subsidiary of Icom Inc of Japan. Unde the deal Westel's US subsidiary will provide Icom with APCO25 compliant mobile digital radio communications systems and related radio products.

Westel says the pace of conversion in the American public safety market from analogue to the government and military mandated APCO25 digital standard has, to date, been slow. However, "this is expected to increase dramatically with the recent introduction of lower cost end user equipment, such as the portable and mobile radios manufactured by Icom America."

According to Westel, Icom intends to offer full systems support for agencies seeking to upgrade their legacy systems. "There are currently only a handful of communications providers - Kenwood, Motorola and EF Johnson - capable of providing these systems, making Icom America uniquely placed to assist Westel in its market penetration.

Westel sales in the USA last financial year grew 65 percent to $460,000 and the company expects these to more than double again during 2005/6 from existing distributor and in house sales. It will revise its sales forecast to take into account the new business expected from Icom shortly.

Westel recently appointed Applied Technologies of Kuala Lumpur as its first distributor in South East Asia.