The ANDREW® brand was once synonymous with innovation in telecom network components. However, the brand became less prominent for over a decade within CommScope’s outdoor wireless networks (OWN) and distributed antenna systems (DAS) businesses — until the first of February, when the electronics giant Amphenol bought the two business units, comprising all ANDREW staff and assets, in a $2.1 billion cash deal. And now, the brand is back, as ‘ANDREW an Amphenol company’, making its first major appearance at MWC2025.
Mike Wolfe is chief technology officer and an ANDREW veteran since 1991. “We are really excited about the reintroduction of the iconic ANDREW brand,” he says. “It brings us back to our roots and makes us part of the Amphenol family — which has a tremendous span over 140 companies in many different industries. So, we can continue to innovate, and we also have this new flexibility to tap into the Amphenol platform and look at areas that we are not currently in. Going forward, we are going to be even more innovative than before. We will be totally focused on our customers, to solve their challenges – not only in 5G, but in 6G and beyond.”
Which is a whole lot of happy future-gazing. But what about now? Its strategy is further discussed here https://youtu.be/kz3ZTPsPYOQ; but what is the company showing at MWC? RCR Wireless is particularly taken by its sustainability story, which revolves in part around a new high-efficiency technology for base station antennas called SEED® — “which stands for ‘sustainable energy-efficient design’,” explains Wolfe. It is a cutting-edge technology that enhances network performance, delivers bottom-line savings, and promotes better environmental outcomes.
He explains: “We have incorporated a cableless design that improves the efficiency of the antenna. We are also using advanced design methods where we take a [digital-thread/twin] 3D performance of the antenna to run simulations as we do the design — so we can further optimize how it behaves in the network, and thereby deliver better capacity to customers as they deploy it. As well, we have designed the radome using aerodynamic techniques to reduce wind-load and glass fiber-reinforced polypropylene (GFRPP), which is 100% recyclable.
In line with this focus on sustainability, the firm is extending its outdoor enclosure portfolio for different use cases and set-ups, including for energy-storage battery systems. On its booth in Barcelona, it has a cabinet with a wind turbine, geared to different off-grid and rural types of deployment scenarios. “It is about how to enable off-grid sites with a combination of wind, solar, maybe a backup power generator, plus battery storage – and how to design configurations to make that work,” says Wolfe. “It has a deployment in Europe”, he says, which uses “some of [those] technologies, like the vertical wind turbine. It is part of an overall solution to give customers an off-grid capability.”
Of interest, as well, ANDREW has a comprehensive line of class 4 and class 3 microwave backhaul antennas — a technology where they’re best in class. Wolfe confirms that the company’s familiar red lightning-bolt icon (now blue) has a long history in its business, being present on these products for decades. Despite the change in color, not only the quality of the products remains unchanged but also it takes a step forward “we continue to innovate that portfolio and in particular the E-band 80 GHz spectrum range”. One of the things that’s really a challenge is that those antennas have a very narrow beamwidth. However, ANDREW has developed an auto- align antenna to address this. “The technology senses the movement in the tower, and monitors the signal quality from the radio, and then actively compensates the feed structure of the antenna to keep that link at a high-performance level,” he says.
ANDREW’s attention to detail is striking, as one should expect from a company in the production of high-performance solutions. This is evident in their HELIAX® products, which are designed to simplify and speed up connectivity deployment. The patented gel-sealing technology further enhances this by ensuring quick field handling without special tools, forming a moisture-proof, dust-proof barrier with an IP68 rating, and making the installation even easier and quicker.
“There is a common thread to all this hyper innovation, he says – closing the discussion. “We are applying our technologies towards creating simpler, more efficient, and sustainable solutions as an overall strategy for our product portfolio.”
