Westell to stick with domestic manufacturing

Despite increased price pressure, particularly from Chinese vendors who are expected to flood the market, Westell Technologies CEO Van Cullens said the company would continue manufacturing its DSL modems in the U.S.

Speaking at the Kaufman Bros. Communications, Media and Technology Conference today, Cullens said he doesn’t believe any amount of products coming from offshore vendors would make a significant dent in the U.S. carrier market.

“This is not the commodity market that people try to represent it to be,” he said, noting there is enough variation in the specifications for each carrier's customer premises equipment to prevent DSL modems from becoming a pure commodity.

Westell, which announced an agreement to become Cincinnati Bell’s primary provider of DSL modems last month, also has the flexibility in its manufacturing process to scale up and down without significant financial impact, Cullens said. However, the company is looking at a number of ways to expand its distribution. Currently, Westell distributes product almost exclusively through ILEC channels.

“We want to look at maybe the VAR channels and we need to do some work on the international front,” Cullens said.