Cirtek US unit bags contract to supply antenna to carrier

Business Mirror

By: VG Cabuag

The US unit of Laguna-based Cirtek Holdings Philippines Corp. on Tuesday said it bagged a deal for a master purchase agreement with one of the top 5 wireless carriers in North America.

Cirtek said Quintel USA Inc. clinched the deal and will support the carrier’s effort to launch its full commercial 5G services using fresh spectrum starting next year.

The company did not name the telco, which spent close to $500 million to acquire the 5G spectrum. The said carrier will spend close to $1 billion in capital expenditures this year, up by 27 percent from last year.

The overall US wireless carriers are projected to grow its spending by 11 percent to $35 billion in 2021.

“Quintel is pleased to take part in building and transforming the information technology and connectivity revolution ahead as networks transition to 5G. Among the portfolio being launched, is our flagship 14-Port Small Cell Canister solution,” the company said.

The 5G or the fifth generation of mobile network allows the connection to the internet of other machines other the the mobile phones and other smart devices. It uses smaller antennas, which are connected to a bigger network, to connect devices at faster rate than the 4G or 3G networks.

Michael Liu, Quintel president and Cirtek Holdings executive vice president, said Quintel’s new antennas cover all low-band spectrum at 600, 700 and 850 megahertz and mid-band spectrum at 1.6 to 2.6 gigahertz and 5 Gh in North America, including the US, Canada and Mexico.

It is also capable of handling new spectrum bands, “being vital for delivering bulk of what will be 5G services in sub 6GHz spectrum critical of the deployment, a feature first and yet unseen in the market,” he said.

He said Quintel will launch a new platform of small cell antenna products to complement its growing multi-port base station antenna portfolio designed to its new customer’s next generation network.

Cirtek earlier said its net income in the January-to-June period more than doubled to $4.98 million from last year’s $2.28 million, despite a decrease in revenues.

The company said it had consolidated revenues of $42.3 million for the period, some 13 percent lower than last year’s $48.64 million.

“The decrease accounted for was mainly due to the 25 percent decrease in revenue contribution of Quintel, a US-based product and R and D (research and development) company acquired in 2017 and 12 percent decrease in revenue contribution from semiconductor business,” the company said.

Revenues from Quintel for the period reached $12.7 million. Revenues from its antenna manufacturing before consolidation rose 4 percent to $11.4 million from last year’s $11.04 million, while those from the semiconductor business fell 12 percent to $18.1 million from $20.6 million last year.