Lan 1 buys TR Telecom broadband division

Lan 1 today acquired the broadband distribution division of Melbourne's TR Telecom, bolstering its Melbourne office and wireless portfolio.

TR's broadband division held distribution agreements with Motorola, Rad Data, LightPointe, DragonWave, Ruckus Wireless, Aperto and Icomera.

Lan 1 managing director Daniel Lee said, all the vendors would be retained for 90 days, after which the contracts would be renegotiated.

"We're maintaining relationships with all the vendors because we don't want to cause any disruption to the [TR] reseller community or to the delivery of equipment," Lee said.

"It's very important we don't disrupt the supply chain. Resellers shouldn't be inhibited by the acquisition."

Lee said renegotiation after 90 days was necessary to align the TR Telecom acquisition with a realignment of the distributor's own business. That realignment was expected to be completed "within the next 30 days".

"As much as the vendors need to decide whether to work with us, we must make sure they fit within our overall strategy," Lee said.

The acquisition established Lan 1 as an end-to-end wireless solutions provider, Lee said.

Lan 1 will take 30 percent of TR Telecom's broadband division staff as part of the acquisition, bolstering the distie's Melbourne-based team to seven.

The other staff would be retained within the TR Group of companies, TR Telecom's general manager Michael Johnson said.

"The fact we could sell to a company experienced in wireless and they could grow TR Telecom's broadband business [was attractive]," Johnson said.

Motorola was the only distie agreement shared by Lan 1 and TR Telecom.

Canada's Dragon Wave, which this week won a supply deal with Perth WiMAX network Vividwireless, confirmed it was shifting from TR Telecom "to a new distie".

Its director of business development, Christopher Russell, said TR had been its "primary distribution channel in Australia for the past three years."

He could not reveal the identity of the new distie but said both parties were "working at better understanding each other."

Lan 1's Lee did not believe they would lose any of the vendors as a result of the acquisition.

TR Telecom's other business unit, which resells Iridium satellite-based voice and data products, was unaffected by the company's exit from the broadband business.

Johnson said the company would use the proceeds of the sale to bolster the satellite unit with a GPS tracking service and "other high-speed data services outside [of] Iridium".

TR Telecom had commenced negotiations with other suppliers. The expansion would not affect its Iridium contracts, Johnson said.