Comtech to build LEO modems
December 13, 2022
By Chris Forrester
Comtech Telecommunications, a major supplier of equipment to telcos and the space industry, is building a new factory in Arizona to build modems and targeting the newly-emerging low Earth orbiting sector for new business.
Comtech already supplier high-end equipment for the likes of SES which uses the kit on its O3b/mPOWER satellites being built by Boeing.
The company’s new chairman and president, Ken Peterman, recently told shareholders that the business needed to move “faster than ever” to transform itself. It seems to have embraced that message. While not divulging the name of its new client, Comtech is investing in a 146,000 square foot facility at Chandler, Arizona, and will have modems rolling off its production line by “early 2023” according to a filing with the US Securities & Exchange Commission.
“There is a desire to move fast,” Comtech CFO Michael Bondi said in an investor call. Comtech reported expanding overall revenues (up 3.5 on the previous quarter) to $131.1 million and 12.2 per cent up on the same period a year ago. However, looking at Comtech’s Satellite and Space Communications division and its revenues for the quarter were up 5.3 per cent (to $80.9 million, and an improvement over the previous year of 25.2 per cent.