CRN Impact Awards: Powertec Wireless Technology augments Nextivity's Cel-Fi network boosters with accessories

Powertec Wireless Technology has been named the winner of the Distribution Performance category of the 2021 CRN Impact Awards for going above and beyond as a distributor for networking vendor Nextivity.

Powertec has been a long-time distribution partner of Nextivity, particularly its Cel-fi range of network boosters and mobile repeaters. The distie said it is the vendor’s largest distributor in terms of volume and sales.

Cel-Fi’s mobile repeaters help amplify and disburse a mobile signal within a building or vehicle without causing any interference. Nextivity’s other products provide similar functionality for other connectivity types, including Wi-Fi, LoRa, Bluetooth, Sigfox, NB-IoT, LTE-M. 802.11ah/ay, Terragraph and 5G NR.

As distributor, Powertec offers Cel-fi to a diverse range of customers, including home and office, recreational and commercial fleet vehicles, and enterprise customers like multi-storey buildings, warehouses, retail shopping centres, hospitals and medical centres and other large-format buildings.

Powertec also works with mining, energy and defence through specially-designed repeater systems, as well as long range relay systems for isolated farms and communities.

To achieve those solutions, Powertec developed a range of accessories to suit all those customer types, including antennas for home installations, office buildings, vehicles, marine crafts and more. For medium-sized business customers, its Off-Air Repeater System uses a series of donor antennas to obtain a solid input signal from the macro network, which is then boosted through a series of repeaters, and output through a number of service antennas.

“Since the beginning of our partnership in 2012, Powertec and Nextivity have offered our customers the most advanced, operator tested and approved, coverage solutions available in the Oceania region,” Nextivity vice president of sales Tom Cooper said.

“Powertec has always been at the forefront of our sales programs worldwide, by deploying well-designed, complete system solutions and by providing superior post-sales support, they continue to lead by example. We are proud to be their partner and look to a long-lasting future.”

Powertec said it set a 20 percent growth target for Nextivity Cel-fi from 2019 to 2021, eventually exceeding that to reach 22 percent growth. It also invested aggressively on TV adverts and hired more staff to reach more channel partners.

That growth has extended to some of its channel partners, including Leading Edge Group.

Leading Edge head of category for electronics and repair George Jabbour said, “Throughout COVID, demand for high quality and cell repeaters were on a rise due to work from home [arrangements]. With Powertec offering great service and support on their Cel-Fi product range, many locations were able to provide for this demand which has still yet to slow down. When introducing the product into our locations, many customers’ needs were met and a core range for our locations was identified.

“The introduction of Cel-Fi products in our locations, has introduced a new form of technology to help assist consumers and businesses and fill a need. Since the introduction of Powertec to our business, we have seen consistent growth from FY16 right through to FY21.

“Due to the high demand for Cel-Fi products during the pandemic, we have seen a staggering 200 percent growth year on year. With this amazing growth in mind, we will be working even closer with Powertec in FY22 on new product launches. as well as focusing on a larger core range of products.”