Westell Technologies, Inc. is an

Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

, Illinois company that provides telecommunications equipment for in-building wireless, intelligent site management, cell site optimization, and outside plant solutions. Westell was the last company to manufacture

DSL modem A digital subscriber line (DSL) modem is a device used to connect a computer or router to a telephone line which provides the digital subscriber line (DSL) service for connection to the Internet, which is often called ''DSL broadband''. The m ...

s in the United States; however, on May 21, 2007, Westell announced plans to

outsource Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...

manufacturing. ADSLmodemWestell6100

History

Westell was founded in October 1980 in Willowbrook, Illinois, and initially produced electronic equipment used for signaling and transmission on telephone lines

leased A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the user (referred to as the ''lessee'') to pay the owner (referred to as the ''lessor'') for the use of an asset. Property, buildings and vehicles are common assets that are leased. Industrial ...

to private customers. Clinton Penny, who had previously founded

Wescom Switching Wescom Switching Incorporated was a designer and manufacturer of digital telecommunication products such as private branch exchanges (PBXs) from 1974 until its sale (along with Wescom Inc.) to Rockwell International in 1980. Rockwell continued the ...

, founded Westell. Beginning in 1992, Westell began developing

ADSL Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. ...

products. By the time of its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

(IPO) in 1995, Westell was a prominent

DSLAM A digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM, often pronounced ''DEE-slam'') is a network device, often located in telephone exchanges, that connects multiple customer digital subscriber line (DSL) interfaces to a high-speed digital co ...

manufacturer. The company moved out of this business in the wake of the

stock market downturn of 2002 In 2001, stock prices took a sharp downturn (some say "stock market crash" or " the Internet bubble bursting") in stock markets across the United States, Canada, Asia, and Europe. After recovering from lows reached following the September 11 attac ...

, and then focused primarily on manufacturing cell site optimization equipment,

Ethernet Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

connectivity products, intelligent site management and a series of outdoor enclosure and cabinets. In 2013, Westell acquired Kentrox Inc., a Dublin-based site management services company, for $30 million.

References

{{Reflist Telecommunications companies of the United States Telecommunications equipment vendors Telecommunications companies established in 1980 Economy of Aurora, Illinois Companies based in DuPage County, Illinois Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq 1995 initial public offerings