Westell finds its voice

Westell Technologies made its first steps into the voice-over-IP market today, announcing that it has licensed intellectual property for technology from the shuttered DirecTV Broadband unit of Hughes Electronics.

Hughes, which closed its DirecTV Broadband operations early last year, developed both back office subscriber management technology as well as customer premise equipment as part of its short foray into DSL.

"Hughes was in the DirecTV arena that had requirements for a wide subscriber base," said a Westell spokesman. "That technology was intriguing to Westell as well as the relevant VoIP technology."

The agreement runs for two years, gives Westell exclusive rights to the technology and includes both hardware and software.

"It gives us a two-year advantage over the competition," the spokesman said. "This obviously is an indication that VoIP is on our target for 2004."