WESTELL TECHNOLOGIES INC - Annual Report: 2006 (Form 10-K)

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

Commission file number: 0-27266

WESTELL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

750 N. Commons Drive, Aurora, Illinois 60504

(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)

Registrant's telephone number, including area code: (630) 898-2500

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act: None

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: Class A Common Stock, $.01 par value

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 of Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes  o  No  x

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant's knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. x

The registrant estimates that the aggregate market value of the registrant's Class A Common Stock held by non-affiliates (within the meaning of the term under the applicable regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission) on September 30, 2005 (based upon an estimate that 72% of the shares are so owned by non-affiliates and upon the average of the high and low prices for the Class A Common Stock on the NASDAQ National Market on that date) was approximately $204 million. Determination of stock ownership by non-affiliates was made solely for the purpose of responding to this requirement and registrant is not bound by this determination for any other purpose.

As of June 2, 2006, 55,607,834 shares of the registrant's Class A Common Stock were outstanding and 14,741,872 shares of registrant's Class B Common Stock (which automatically converts on a one-for-one basis into shares of Class A Common Stock upon a transfer of such stock except transfers to certain permitted transferees) were outstanding.

The following documents are incorporated into this Part III Form 10-K (and any amendments thereto) by reference:

WESTELL TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

2006 ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K CONTENTS

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

Certain statements contained in this Annual Report of Form 10-K including, without limitation, statements containing the words "believe," ”goal,” “on track, “ "anticipate," “committed” "expectation," ”expect,” "estimate", "await," "continue," "intend," “may,” “will,” “should,” and similar expressions are forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. The Company can give no assurance that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. These risks include, but are not limited to, product demand and market acceptance risks, need for financing, any economic downturn in the U.S. economy and telecom market, the impact of competitive products or technologies, competitive pricing pressures, product development, excess and obsolete inventory, new product development, commercialization and technological delays or difficulties (including delays or difficulties in developing, producing, testing and selling new products and technologies), the effect of Westell’s accounting policies, the need for additional capital, the effect of economic conditions and trade, legal social and economic risks (such as import, licensing and trade restrictions) and other risks more fully described in this Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2006 under the section “Risk Factors”. These statements are not guaranties of future performance. Westell undertakes no obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to these forward looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. At any time when the Company makes forward-looking statements, it desires to take advantage of the “safe harbor” which is afforded such statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

PART I

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

Westell Technologies, Inc., (the “Company”) was incorporated in Delaware in 1980 and its headquarters are located at 750 North Commons Drive, Aurora, Illinois. The Company is comprised of two segments: equipment sales and teleconference services. In the equipment segment, the Company designs, manufactures, markets and services a broad range of digital and legacy analog products used by telephone companies and other telecommunications service providers to deliver broadband services over both existing copper telephone wires and fiber that connect end users to a telephone company's central office. The central office is a telephone company building where subscriber lines are joined to switching equipment that can connect subscribers to each other. The copper wires and fiber that connect users to these central offices are part of the telephone companies' networks and are commonly referred to as the local loop or the local access network.

The equipment manufacturing segment consists of two product lines: Customer Networking Equipment (CNE) products and Network Service Access (NSA) products. The CNE product line includes broadband and digital subscriber line (DSL) technology products that allow the transport of high-speed data over the local loop and enable telecommunications companies to provide broadband services over existing copper infrastructure and fiber. The Company’s NSA product line consists of manageable and non-manageable T1 transmission equipment, associated mountings and special service plugs for the legacy copper telephone network. On December 29, 2005, the Company acquired 100% of the common stock of HyperEdge Corporation, a manufacturer of network service access products. Westell realizes the majority of its revenues from the North American market.

The Company’s service segment is comprised of a 91.5% owned subsidiary, Conference Plus, Inc. Conference Plus provides audio, video, and web conferencing services. Businesses and individuals use these services to hold voice, video or web conferences with many people at the same time. Conference Plus sells its services directly to large customers, including Fortune 1000 companies, and serves other customers indirectly through its private reseller program.

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Revenues and total assets from Westell's two reportable segments and product groups for the fiscal years ended March 31 are as follows (for more information also see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” and the consolidated financial statements and notes thereto included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K):

Financial information for each of the Company’s business and operations by geographic area and segments is located in Note 12 of the consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report and is incorporated herein by reference.

The Company’s stock is divided into two classes. Class A common stock is entitled to one vote per share while Class B common stock is entitled to four votes per share. The Company’s largest stockholder is a voting trust that owned 47.8% of the voting control of the Company as of June 2, 2006. The trust was formed for the benefit of Robert C. Penny III and Melvin J. Simon and their respective families. Certain Penny family members also own or are beneficiaries of trusts that own shares outside of the voting trust. As trustees of the Voting Trust and other trusts, Messrs. Penny and Simon control 52.7% of the voting stock and therefore effectively control the Company.

The Company’s Products

The equipment segment of the Company’s business consists of two product lines, offering a broad range of products that facilitate the broadband transmission of high-speed digital and analog data between a telephone company's central office and end-user customers. These two product lines are:

The prices for the products within each market group vary based upon volume, customer specifications and other criteria and are subject to change due to competition among telecommunications manufacturers. Increasing competition, in terms of the number of entrants and their size, and increasing size of the Company’s customers because of past mergers, continues to exert downward pressure on prices for the Company's products. The Company has also elected to eliminate some products and exit some markets based on an analysis of current and future prospects.

Digital subscriber line (DSL) technology uses complex modulation methods to enable high-speed services over copper phone lines. Current DSL equipment allows the simultaneous transmission of data at speeds up to 8 megabits

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per second when receiving information on the Internet, or 140 times faster than standard 56k modem dial up service, and up to 1 megabits per second when sending information on the Internet, or 17 times faster than standard 56k modem dial up service, while also providing standard analog telephone service over a single pair of copper wires. Current DSL equipment operates at distances of up to 18,000 feet from the telephone company’s central office. A new DSL standard termed ADSL2+ has been introduced and is now being deployed by service providers. ADSL2+ increases downstream speed to 24 megabits per second while extending the reach of the equipment to potentially from 18,000 to 22,000 feet in certain circumstances. To increase the data rate of ADSL2+ for IPTV video applications, carriers are bonding ADSL2+ pairs together to double the speed of standard ADSL2+. Additionally, a higher-speed standard, VDSL2, is now being introduced and some limited deployment has begun. VDSL2 is targeted at IPTV solutions with a maximum data rate of 100Mbps on loops shorter than 3,000 feet. Westell has evolved its product line and introduced new products that support these new ADSL2/2+, bonded and VDSL standards. These new standards improve delivery of new services like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Video in addition to high-speed internet.

With DSL technology, a user can talk on the telephone and simultaneously transmit high-speed data over the same copper phone line. DSL products enable telephone companies to provide interactive multimedia services over copper wire while simultaneously carrying traditional telephone services, thus mitigating the need for the consumers to install second lines to provide these services. DSL technology is also known as Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL and ADSL2+) when it refers to products that provide the ability to send and receive information at varying speeds.

The DSL connection or link is comprised of a DSL Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) and equipment at the users location referred to as customer premise equipment (CPE). The DSLAM is a piece of equipment that typically resides in telephone companies' central offices. It aggregates, or multiplexes, multiple DSL access lines into a telephone company's high-speed line back to its core or central network. As network service providers increase deployment of DSL based services, the need for DSL line concentration at the central offices increases. The CPE is typically a small device enabling DSL services that is found adjacent to a personal computer.

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The following table sets forth a list of the Company's principal CNE products and their applications:

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NSA Products. Westell’s NSA products provide telephone companies with products to transport, maintain and improve the reliability of services over copper and fiber lines in the local access network. The following table sets forth a list of the Company's principal NSA products and their applications:

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Research and Development Capabilities and Engineering Base

The Company believes that its future success depends, in part, on its ability to maintain its technological leadership through enhancements of its existing products and development of new products that meet customer needs. The Company is focusing on expanding its product offerings in the equipment segment from basic high speed broadband to more sophisticated applications such as networking, wireless and converged services. Westell works closely with its current and potential customers as part of the product development process.

In fiscal 2005, the Company received $900,000 from customers to fund engineering projects which was offset in part by a $300,000 expense for engineering performed by a third party. The $600,000 was offset against research and development expenses. The Company did not receive any funding from customers for engineering projects in fiscal 2004 or 2006. The Company capitalized $1.9 million in software development costs in fiscal 2005. The Company did not capitalize any software development costs in fiscal 2004 or 2006. In fiscal 2006, 2005 and 2004 the Company spent approximately $20.3 million, $15.9 million and $17.4 million on research and development activities, net of customer funding and software capitalization.

Westell's quality systems, including Product Development Processes, are registered to TL9000, which is the Telecommunication Industry's sector-specific version of the ISO9001:2000 International Quality System Standard. These processes are also registered to ISO9001:2000. The Company's research and development personnel are organized into product development teams. Each product development team is generally responsible for sustaining technical support of existing products, decreasing manufacturing costs, conceiving new products in cooperation with other groups within the Company and adapting standard products or technology to meet new customer needs. In particular, each product development team is charged with implementing the Company's engineering strategy of reducing product costs for each succeeding generation of the Company's products in an effort to be a highly valued, superior quality provider, without compromising functionality or serviceability.

The Company believes that the key to this strategy is choosing an initial architecture for each product that enables engineering innovations to result in performance enhancements and future cost reductions. Westell’s products are designed in conjunction with input from procurement and manufacturing personnel to reduce costs. The Company believes it has a quality record that is grounded in a solid interface and transference of knowledge between design and manufacturing teams. Successful execution of this strategy also requires that the Company continue to attract and recruit highly qualified engineers.

The Company’s products are subject to industry wide standardization organizations which include the DSL Forum, the American National Standards Institute (“ANSI”) in the United States and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (“ETSI”) which are responsible for specifying transmission standards for telecommunications technologies. The industry transmission standard for ADSL adopted by ANSI and ETSI is based upon Discrete Multitone Technology (DMT). DMT is technology that allows digital information to be sent at high-speeds over copper phone lines and prevents the digital information from interfering with other services provided on the same copper phone line. Westell incorporates DMT technology into its DSL products. The Company has not developed a DMT transceiver technology for its product offerings and is dependent on transceiver technologies sourced from third parties. The Company has established multiple strategic relationships with transceiver technology vendors for DSL chipsets to be used in ADSL systems by the Company. Absent the proper relationships with key silicon chipset vendors, the Company’s products may not comply with standards set forth by ANSI and ETSI. Should customers require standards based products containing transceiver technology not available to the Company under reasonable terms and conditions, the Company’s business and results of operations would be materially and adversely affected.

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The following table lists the principal products currently under development along with their description and expected application:

The Company anticipates that it will generate revenue from the products listed in the above table in fiscal year 2007 and fiscal year 2008. However, there can be no assurance that the Company will be able to introduce such products as planned.

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Customers

The Company's principal customers historically have been large Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) within the United States. In addition, Westell sells products to several other entities, including public telephone administrations located outside the U.S., independent domestic local exchange carriers, competitive local exchange carriers, inter-exchange carriers, Internet service providers, and business enterprises. Revenues from international customers represented approximately $7.5 million, $8.4 million and $6.3 million of the Company's revenues in fiscal 2006, 2005 and 2004, respectively, accounting for 2.7%, 3.1% and 2.7% of the Company's revenues in such periods.

The Company depends, and will continue to depend, on the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) and other independent local exchange carriers for substantially all of its revenues. Sales to the RBOCs accounted for 78.1%, 77.5% and 76.8% of the Company's revenues in fiscal 2006, 2005 and 2004, respectively. Sales to the Company’s largest three customers, Verizon, BellSouth and AT&T (formerly SBC) accounted for 50.7%, 17.9% and 7.9% of the Company's revenues in fiscal 2006, respectively. Consequently, the Company's future success will depend upon the timeliness and size of future purchase orders from the RBOCs, the product requirements of the RBOCs, the financial and operating success of the RBOCs and the success of the RBOCs' services that use the Company's products. Any attempt by an RBOC or other telephone company access providers to seek out additional or alternative suppliers or to undertake the internal production of products could have a material adverse effect on the Company's business and results of operations. In addition, the Company's sales to its largest customers have in the past fluctuated, and in the future could fluctuate significantly from quarter to quarter and year to year. The loss of such customers or the occurrence of such sales fluctuations would materially adversely affect the Company's business and results of operations.

The Company’s contracts with its major customers are primarily pricing and product specification agreements that do not require a specific level of quantities to be purchased. Each customer provides the Company with purchase orders for units on an as-needed basis.

The RBOCs and the Company's other customers are significantly larger than, and are able to exert a high degree of influence over, the Company. As a result, our larger customers may be able to reschedule or cancel orders without significant penalty. Prior to selling its products to telephone companies, the Company must undergo lengthy approval and purchase processes, which are discussed in the section, captioned “Marketing, Sales and Distribution”.

Marketing, Sales and Distribution

The Company sells its products in the U.S. through its domestic field sales organization and selected distributors. The Company has had an established sales force and channel to domestic service providers since its founding in 1980.

The Company markets its products domestically within the United States, as well as in Canada and Europe. In North America, the Company’s traditional NSA products are sold directly to the service providers or in some cases to distributors who service these carriers. The Company’s CNE products are sold directly to telephone carriers, to distributors who service these carriers and to Internet service providers who provide DSL services. The Company believes that the DSL sales channels are very dynamic and continually looks to adapt and configure its sales force and processes to meet these changes.

Prior to selling its products to telephone companies, the Company must undergo lengthy approval and purchase processes. Evaluation can take as little as a few months for products that vary slightly from existing products in the local access network and often longer for products based on new technologies. Accordingly, the Company is continually submitting successive generations of its current products as well as new products to its customers for approval.

Although the telephone company approval processes may vary to some extent depending on the customer and the product being evaluated, they generally are conducted as follows:

Laboratory Evaluation. The product's function and performance are tested against all relevant industry standards.

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Technical Trial. A number of telephone lines are equipped with the product for simulated operation in a field trial. The field trial is used to evaluate performance, assess ease of installation and establish troubleshooting procedures.

Marketing Trial. Emerging products are tested for market acceptance of new applications and services. Marketing trials usually involve a greater number of systems than technical trials because systems are deployed at several locations in the telephone company's network. This stage gives telephone companies an opportunity to establish procedures, train employees to install and maintain the new product and to obtain more feedback on the product from a wider range of operations personnel.

Commercial Deployment. Commercial deployment usually involves substantially greater numbers of systems and locations than the marketing trial stage. In the first phase of commercial deployment, a telephone company initially installs the equipment in select locations for select applications. This phase is followed by general deployment involving greater numbers of systems and locations. Commercial deployment does not usually mean that one supplier's product is purchased for all of the telephone companies' needs throughout the system as telephone companies often rely upon multiple suppliers to ensure that their needs can be met. Subsequent orders, if any, are generally placed under single or multi-year supply agreements that are generally not subject to minimum volume commitments.

The relationships that the Company establishes in this extensive process are critical in almost every case. The Company has a history of working closely with the service providers in this fashion and the Company has won numerous quality awards from a variety of customers over the past twenty years.

Technical Support

Westell maintains 24-hour, 7-day-a-week telephone support and provides on-site support. The Company also provides technical consulting, research assistance and training to some of its customers with respect to the installation, operation and maintenance of its products.

The Company has general purchase agreements with most of its major customers. These agreements may require the Company to accept returns of products within certain time limits, or indemnify such customers against certain liabilities arising out of the use of the Company's products. Although, to date, the Company has not experienced any significant product returns or indemnification claims under these contracts, any such claims or returns could have a material adverse effect on the Company's business and results of operations.

The Company's products are required to meet rigorous standards imposed by its customers. Most of the Company's products carry a limited warranty ranging from one to two years for CNE products and seven to ten years for NSA products, which generally covers defects in materials or workmanship and failure to meet published specifications, but excludes damages caused by improper use and all other warranties. In the event there are material deficiencies or defects in the design or manufacture of the Company's products, the affected products could be subject to recall.

Manufacturing

The Company performs the majority of its manufacturing at its facility in Aurora, Illinois. The Company is positioned to activate a subcontractor to produce CNE products if demand were to significantly increase. The Company subcontracts the production of a portion of its NSA products. Reliance on third-party subcontractors involves several risks, including the potential absence of adequate capacity and reduced control over product quality, delivery schedules, manufacturing yields and costs.

The Company has purchase contracts with suppliers of material components. Most purchased items are standard commercial components available from multiple suppliers. There are also single-sourced components needed to produce products. One of the single-sourced items in broadband consists of the license to run an operating platform. There are a number of other suppliers in the market that could supply the Company with this same technology, however, it would take the Company at least nine months to reengineer the product and subsequently get product approval from customers. This delay would materially adversely affect the Company’s business. Broadband product sales accounted for 68.8% of revenue in fiscal 2006. All purchase contracts are short term in nature with the exception of three long-term commitments to purchase memory chips.

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A substantial portion of the Company's shipments in any fiscal period can relate to orders for products received in that period. Westell's domestic Manufacturing Processes are also registered to TL9000, as well as to ISO9001:2000. Further, a significant percentage of orders, such as Network Interface Units, or NIUs, may require delivery within 48 hours. To meet this demand, the Company maintains raw materials inventory and finished goods inventory at its manufacturing facilities. In addition, the Company maintains some finished goods inventory at the customers’ sites pursuant to agreements that the customers will eventually purchase such inventory. Because of the rapid technological changes to our products, the Company faces a reoccurring risk that the inventory it holds may become obsolete.

Competition

The markets for the Company's products are intensely competitive and the Company expects competition to increase in the future, especially in the rapidly changing markets for broadband products. Westell’s primary competitors vary by market segment. The Company’s principal competitors with respect to its NSA products are Adtran, ADC Telecommunications and Pulsecom. The Company's principal competitors with respect to its CNE broadband products are primarily Siemens Information and Communication Network Inc. (Efficient), Netopia Inc., 2Wire Inc., Cisco Systems Inc. (Linksys), D-Link Systems Inc., ActionTec Electronics Inc., Thomson and ZyXEL Communications Co. The Company believes that it is currently one of the leading sellers of DSL products in North America. However, many of the Company’s competitors are significantly larger and have more financial resources than the Company. To compete against these competitors, the Company focuses on quality, time to market and the ability to react quickly to market changes resulting from U.S. based operations including manufacturing and product development. The Company expects that new competitive pressure from Asian based manufactures will continue downward pressure on pricing.

Additional competition is seen from products that increase the efficiency of digital transmission over copper wire such as fiber, wireless, cable modems and other products delivering broadband digital transmission. Telephone companies face competition from cable operators, new local access providers and wireless service providers that are capable of providing high speed digital transmission to end users. At the end of 2005, 24 million customers used cable modems in the U.S. in contrast to 18.5 million DSL subscribers. By 2009, according to Infonetics, a service that provides industry trend data, is forecasting there to be 35.6 million cable modem users in North America versus 41.4 million DSL users resulting in a 54% market share for DSL modems. In addition, the deployment of products and technologies for copper wire may also reduce the demand for NSA products currently manufactured by the Company. The deployment of HDSL2 and HDSL4 systems in the U.S. reduces telephone companies' need for T-1 repeaters, which results in a decrease in demand for Westell's T-1 products such as its Network Interface Units. The Company believes that the domestic market for some of its older, low speed NSA transmission products is decreasing, and will likely continue to decrease, as high capacity digital transmission becomes less expensive and more widely deployed. See the risk factor captioned “Our products face competition from other existing products, products under development and changing technology, and if we do not remain competitive, our business will suffer and we may not remain profitable”.

Teleconference Services

Conference Plus, Inc., founded in 1988, is a full service conferencing company that manages and hosts specific software and applications relating to conferencing and meeting services. Conference Plus is an 91.5% owned subsidiary of Westell and manages its teleconferencing and meeting services through its main operations center in Schaumburg, Illinois and a facility in Dublin, Ireland. Conference Plus services generated $45.1 million, $44.4 million and $45.3 million in revenues in fiscal 2006, 2005 and 2004, respectively.

Conference Plus allows multiple individuals, organizations and/or businesses to conduct conference calls using a combination of voice, video or web such as graphs or spreadsheets. Conference Plus offers conference call services that can include a blend of audio, graphics, spreadsheets or other documents that can be carried over and archived on the Internet to enhance the traditional voice conference call. By enabling the sharing of this blend of information, Conference Plus can help organizations increase productivity and save money by reducing travel time, bringing down travel costs, and making it easier for people in remote locations to work together. Teleconference and meeting service technologies also allow organizations and individuals to collect and disseminate information faster, more accurately and without the associated costs of face-to-face meetings.

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Diverse Distribution Channels

Conference Plus has historically acted as a provider of conferencing and meeting services on a wholesale basis, managing and hosting applications for major carriers and telecommunications resellers. About half of Conference Plus’ revenues come from indirect commercial teleconferencing services to customers who market or use Conference Plus services under their own brand name. Such companies choose to outsource and private label audio, web and video teleconferencing services to maintain continuity, save costs and focus on their core competencies. By selling into indirect or resale customers, Conference Plus effectively increases the size of their sales organization without incurring the expense necessary with a direct sales force.

Conference Plus also sells its services directly to companies through its National Accounts Sales force. This area continues to be a strong part of Conference Plus’s business and the Company expects to continue to invest resources in this area in order to maintain a diverse mix of revenue distribution. The deployment of this strategy is designed to improve the recognition of the Conference Plus brand, which has strategic long term benefits to the Company.

State of the Art Network and Integrated Systems

A critical part of Conference Plus’ approach is its state of the art network and integrated systems. Conference Plus has a state of the art network infrastructure that enables it to take advantage of the relationships it has with major telecommunications providers to provide quality service. Conference Plus has deployed equipment in carrier Points-of-Presence to take advantage of the higher capacity and the lower cost structure available with such deployments.

Conference Plus has built an integrated reservations, scheduling and billing system called Conferencing and Reservation Billing System (“CRBS”) that is a significant differentiator in the conferencing market. CRBS allows Conference Plus to leverage its operations on a global basis. This reliable and scalable system is seamlessly integrated in the operational environment from the point of reservation through the billing process. This integration allows Conference Plus to enjoy scale advantages and to be able to provide transparent branded services to its customers. This system is built and maintained by an in-house team of engineers, developers and technicians who continually work to improve and enhance the system based on industry trends, customer requests and strategic direction.

Conference Plus has extended certain capabilities of CRBS to a publicly available web portal where customers can sign up for service, manage their accounts and control their conferences. Conference Plus has also tightly integrated with third party suppliers of web conferencing services to enhance our audio and video services. In addition to making these services available to customers, Conference Plus has the ability to privately brand the entire web experience to match any other brand visualization that may be required. This capability is beneficial for both indirect customers where this helps support the indirect brand as well as for large enterprise customers where branding can help drive corporate adoption.

Conference Plus has also begun leveraging the capabilities of CRBS for certain large scale conferencing deployments where the technology can simplify and streamline the usage, billing and cost accounting services for select customers.

International Reach

As customers globalize their telecommunications services, Conference Plus has expanded its operational presence internationally to meet these needs. In addition to its main operational centers in Schaumburg, Illinois and Dublin, Ireland, Conference Plus has teleconferencing bridges located in Chicago, Illinois, Broadview, Illinois and London, England. Conference Plus is able to serve the teleconferencing needs of customers headquartered anywhere in the world through these facilities. The Conference Plus facility in Dublin, Ireland was established in 1998 to help meet

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the growing demand for global conferencing service. The international market for teleconferencing is expected to grow as a result of deregulation and improved networks with associated reductions in end user costs.

Conference Plus’ indirect or private label customers and many of its other customers are significantly larger than, and are thus able to exert a high degree of influence over, Conference Plus. Conference Plus depends on two customers to provide a significant percent of its revenues. A loss of one of these customers would have a material adverse effect on Conference Plus’s business. Prior to selling its services, Conference Plus must undergo lengthy approval and purchase processes. Evaluation can take a few months for services that vary slightly from existing services used by the prospective customer to a year or more for services based on technologies such as video or data teleconferencing or which represent a new strategic direction for the customer, as in the case with private labeling teleconference services for a large reseller.

Competition in the teleconferencing business is intense and Conference Plus expects that competition will increase due to low barriers of entry and recent entrants into the audio teleconferencing service market. Many of Conference Plus' competitors, including InterCall, AT&T, Verizon, Premiere Global and British Telecom, have much greater name recognition, more extensive customer service and marketing capabilities and substantially greater financial, technological and personnel resources than Conference Plus. There can be no assurance that Conference Plus will be able to successfully compete in this market in the future or that competitive pressures will not result in price reductions that would materially adversely affect its business and results of operations.

Government Regulation

The telecommunications industry, including most of the Company's customers, is subject to regulation from federal and state agencies, including the FCC and various state public utility and service commissions. While such regulation does not affect the Company directly, the effects of such regulations on the Company's customers may, in turn, adversely impact the Company's business and results of operations. For example, FCC regulatory policies affecting the availability of telephone and communications services and other terms on which service providers conduct their business may impede the Company's penetration of certain markets. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 lifted certain restrictions on the carriers’ ability to provide interactive multimedia services including video on demand. Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, new regulations have been established whereby carriers may provide various types of services beyond traditional voice offerings.

In addition, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 permits the carriers to engage in manufacturing activities after the FCC authorizes a carrier to provide long distance services within its service territory. A carrier must first meet specific statutory and regulatory tests demonstrating that its monopoly market for local exchange services is open to competition before it will be permitted to enter the long distance market. When these tests are met, a carrier will be permitted to engage in manufacturing activities, and the carriers, which are the Company's largest customers, may become the Company's competitors as well. See “Risk Factors”.

Proprietary Rights and Intellectual Property

The Company's success and future revenue growth will depend, in part, on its ability to protect trade secrets, obtain or license patents and operate without infringing on the rights of others. The Company relies on a combination of technical leadership, copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets and other intellectual property laws, nondisclosure agreements and other protective measures to protect our unpatented proprietary know-how. The Company regards some of its technology as proprietary and the Company has been granted 26 patents and has an additional 24 U.S. patents pending relating to its NSA and CNE products. The expiration of any of the patents held by the Company would not have a material impact on the Company. The Company expects to seek additional patents from time to time related to its research and development activities.

Many of the Company's products incorporate technology developed and owned by third parties. Consequently, the Company must rely upon third parties to develop and to introduce technologies which enhance the Company's current products and enable the Company, in turn, to develop its own products on a timely and cost-effective basis to meet changing customer needs and technological trends in the telecommunications industry. Without third party transceiver technologies, such as DMT technology, the Company would not be able to produce any of its DSL systems. Consequently, if the Company’s third party transceiver suppliers fail to deliver transceivers that meet the Company’s requirements or fail to deliver transceivers that meet industry standards and other alternative sources of

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DSL transceiver technology are not available to the Company at commercially acceptable terms, then the Company’s business and results of operations would be materially and adversely affected. The Company’s reliance on certain third party technology is also discussed above in “Research and Development Capabilities and Engineering Base”.

Rapid technological evolution has resulted in the need to implement strategic alliances with technology suppliers in order to accelerate the time to market for new products. Without such relationships, due to the lengthy carrier product approval and purchase cycles, the technology may be obsolete by the time the Company completes the product approval and purchase cycles.

Employees

As of March 31, 2006, the Company had 858 full-time employees. Westell and HyperEdge’s domestic equipment manufacturing business combined had a total of 586 full-time employees, consisting of 129 in sales, marketing, distribution and service, 110 in research and development, 312 in manufacturing and 35 in administration. Conference Plus had a total of 256 full-time employees. Westell Limited had a total of 16 full-time employees. The Company's employees are not represented by a collective bargaining agreement nor has the Company ever experienced any work stoppage. The Company believes its relationship with its employees is good.

Available Information

The SEC maintains an internet site, www.sec.gov, through which you may access the company’s annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, proxy and other information statements, as well as amendments to these reports. In addition, the company makes these reports available free of charge on the Company’s internet website, www.westell.com. Westell maintains a corporate governance page on the Company’s website. This website includes, among other items, the Code of Conduct, Audit Committee Charter and Nominating Committee Charter. The corporate governance information can be found at www.westell.com under Investor Relations.

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ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

You should carefully consider the risks described below in addition to the other information contained and incorporated by reference in this Form 10-K. If any of the following risks occurs, our business, operating results or financial condition would likely suffer, and the market price for our securities could decline.

We have incurred losses in the past and may incur losses in the future.

Although we have had sixteen consecutive profitable quarters, in the past, due to our significant ongoing investment in DSL and other new technology, we incurred losses through fiscal 2002. Through fiscal 2002, we incurred operating losses, net losses and negative cash flow on both an annual and quarterly basis. The Company had an accumulated deficit of $234.0 million as of March 31, 2006.

In addition, we expect to continue to evaluate new product opportunities. As a result, we will continue to invest heavily in research and development and sales and marketing, which could adversely affect our short-term operating results. We can offer no assurances that we will remain profitable in the future.

Our stock price is volatile and could drop unexpectedly.

Like many technology stocks, our stock has demonstrated and likely will continue to demonstrate extreme volatility as valuations, trading volume and prices move significantly. This volatility may result in a material decline in the market price of our securities, and may have little relationship to our financial results or prospects.

Our class A common stock price has experienced substantial volatility in the past and is likely to remain volatile in the future due to factors such as:

Many of the factors listed above are not within our control. In the past, companies that have experienced volatility in the market price of their stock have been the subject of securities class litigation.

We have and could face securities class litigation, which could significantly harm our business.

In fiscal 2000, Westell Technologies, Inc. and certain of its officers and directors were named in consolidated class actions. Although these class actions have settled, we could face securities litigation in the future that could result in the payment of substantial damages or settlement costs in excess of our insurance coverage. Any adverse outcome could harm our business. Even if we were to be meritorious in any such litigation, we could incur substantial legal costs and management's attention and resources could be diverted from our business that could cause our business to suffer.

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Due to the rapid technological changes in our industry, our products may become obsolete before we can realize significant revenues from our products, which could cause us to incur charges for excess and obsolete inventory and materially harm our business.

The telecommunications industry is subject to rapid technological change and volatile customer demands, which results in a short product commercial life before a product becomes obsolete. As a result, we have in the past and may in the future devote disproportionate resources to a product that has an unexpected short commercial life and/or have to write off excess and obsolete inventory, each of which would harm our operating results and financial condition and harm our business. From time to time, we may need to write off inventory as excess or obsolete. In the past, we have experienced such write-offs. For example, the Company recognized an inventory adjustment to net realizable value and charges for excess and obsolete inventory of $13.9 million during fiscal year 2002. If we incur substantial inventory expenses that we are not able to recover because of changing market conditions, it could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Pricing pressures on our products may affect our ability to be profitable in the future.

We have and may in the future offer products and services based upon forward pricing, which is the pricing of products below production costs to take into account the expectation of large future volumes and corresponding reduction of manufacturing costs. Forward pricing would cause us to incur lower margins on product or service sales unless we can reduce the associated costs. We believe that costs may decrease if:

There is no guarantee that we will be able to secure significant additional business and reduce per unit costs that we have factored into our forward priced products. As a result, we could incur low or negative margins in connection with sales of forward priced products even if our unit volume increases. Low margins from our sales of products and services could result in fluctuations in our quarterly operating results and would materially and adversely affect our profitability and ability to implement our business goals.

Our products face competition from other existing products, products under development and changing technology, and if we do not remain competitive, our business will suffer and we will not remain profitable.

The markets for our products are characterized by:

New products introductions or changes in services offered by telephone companies or over the Internet could render our existing products and products under development obsolete and unmarketable. Specifically, the drive by telephone companies to offer new VoIP, IPTV, Video and FMC services will cause the current products to be replaced with newer, more compatible technology. Further, we believe that the domestic market for many of our traditional T-1 products is decreasing, and will likely continue to decrease, as high capacity digital transmission becomes less expensive and more widely deployed. For example, our Network Interface Unit product revenue decreased 0.7% in fiscal 2006 and an additional 24.6% in fiscal 2005. Our future success will largely depend upon our ability to continue to enhance and upgrade our existing products, such as T-1 and DSL, and to successfully develop and market new products.

In addition, our current product offerings primarily enable telephone companies to deliver communications over copper telephone wires in the local access network. Telephone companies also face competition in the delivery of digital communications from cable operators, new telephone companies, and wireless service providers. If end users

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obtain their high-speed data transmission services from these alternative providers, then the overall demand for our DSL products will be impaired.

To remain competitive, we must develop new products to meet the demands of these emerging transmission media and new local access network providers. Our business would be severely harmed if our products become obsolete or fail to gain widespread commercial acceptance due to competing products and technologies.

Evolving industry standards may adversely affect our ability to sell our products and consequently harm our business.

Industry wide standardization organizations such as the International Telecommunications Union, American National Standards Institute and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute are responsible for setting transceiver technology standards for DSL and other products. We are dependent on transceiver technologies from third parties to manufacture our products. If transceiver technologies needed for standards-based products are not available to us in a timely manner and under reasonable terms, then our revenues would significantly decrease and our business and operating results would suffer significantly.

In addition, the introduction of competing standards or implementation specifications could result in confusion in the market and delay decisions regarding deployment of our products. Delay in the announcement of standards would materially and adversely impact our product sales and would severely harm our business.

We are dependent on third party technology, the loss of which would harm our business.

We rely on third parties to gain access to technologies that are used in our current products and in products under development. For example, our ability to produce DSL products is dependent upon third party transceiver technologies. Our licenses for DSL transceiver technology are nonexclusive and the transceiver technologies have been licensed to numerous other manufacturers. If our DSL transceiver licensors fail to deliver commercially ready or standards compliant transceiver solutions to us and other alternative sources of DSL transceiver technologies are not available to us at commercially acceptable terms, then our business and operating results would be significantly harmed.

Any impairment in our relationships with the licensors of technologies used in our products would force us to find other developers on a timely basis or develop our own technology. For example, it would take us approximately nine months to reengineer the product and subsequently get product approval from customers if the Company lost its existing licenses to the DSL technology and operating platform used in its DSL products. There is no guarantee that we will be able to obtain the third-party technology necessary to continue to develop and introduce new and enhanced products, that we will obtain third-party technology on commercially reasonable terms or that we will be able to replace third-party technology in the event such technology becomes unavailable, obsolete or incompatible with future versions of our products. We would have severe difficulty competing if we cannot obtain or replace much of the third-party technology used in our products. Any absence or delay would materially adversely affect our business and operating results.

We are dependent on sole or limited source suppliers, the loss of which would harm our business.

Integrated circuits and other electronic components used in our products are currently available from only one source or a limited number of suppliers. Our inability to obtain sufficient key components or to develop alternative sources for key components as required, could result in delays or reductions in product deliveries, and consequently severely harm our customer relationships and our business. Furthermore, additional sole-source components may be incorporated into our future products, thereby increasing our supplier risks. If any of our sole-source suppliers delay or halt production of any of their components, or fail to supply their components on commercially reasonable terms, then our business and operating results would be harmed. For example, it would take the Company approximately nine months to reengineer the product and subsequently get product approval from customers if the Company lost its existing licenses to the DSL technology and operating platform used in its DSL products.

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We may experience delays in the receipt of key components that could result in delays in related product deliveries. There is no guarantee that we will be able to continue to obtain sufficient quantities of key components as required, or that such components, if obtained, will be available to us on commercially reasonable terms.

We have few long term contracts or arrangement with suppliers which could adversely affect our ability to purchase components and technologies used in our products.

We have few long-term contracts or arrangements with our suppliers. We may not be able to obtain components at competitive prices, in sufficient quantities or under other commercially reasonable terms. If we enter into a high-volume or long-term supply arrangement and subsequently decide that we cannot use the products or services provided for in the supply arrangement, then our business would also be harmed. We enter into short term contracts with our suppliers in the form of purchase orders. Purchase orders are often non-cancelable within contractual time periods. These purchase orders are issued to venders based on forecasted demand. If the forecasted demand is materially incorrect, we may find that we cannot use the products ordered, then our business would also be harmed.

We may be adversely impacted by the rising cost of product material components such as copper, petroleum, gold, platinum and silver.

The rising costs of commodities such as copper and petroleum, and to a lesser extent; gold, platinum and silver, all components of the Company’s products, could increase the cost of the Company’s products thereby adversely impacting our business and operating results.

We will not be able to successfully compete, develop and sell new products if we fail to retain key personnel and hire additional key personnel.

Because of our need to continually evolve our business with new product developments and strategies, our success is dependent on our ability to attract and retain qualified technical, marketing, sales and management personnel. To remain competitive, we must maintain top management talent, employees who are involved in product development and testing and employees who have developed strong customer relationships. Because of the high demand to these types of employees, it may be difficult to retain existing key employees and attract new key employees. In addition we do not have non-compete contracts with most of our employees. Our inability to attract and retain additional key employees could harm our ability to successfully sell existing products and develop new products and implement our business goals.

Our quarterly operating results are likely to fluctuate significantly and should not be relied upon as indications of future performance.

We may experience significant fluctuations in quarterly operating results. Due to the risks identified below and elsewhere in "Risk Factors," sales to our three largest customers have fluctuated and could fluctuate significantly between quarters. Sales to our customers typically involve large purchase commitments, and customers purchasing our products may generally reschedule without penalty. As a result, our quarterly operating results have fluctuated significantly in the past. Other factors that have influenced and may continue to influence our quarterly operating results include:

Due to fluctuations in quarterly results, we believe that period-to-period comparisons of our quarterly operating results are not necessarily meaningful. Our quarterly fluctuations make it more difficult to forecast our manufacturing and purchasing needs and revenues. It is possible that in some future quarters our operating results will be below the expectations of securities analysts and investors, which may adversely affect our stock price. As

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long as we continue to depend on DSL products and new products, there is substantial risk of widely varying quarterly results, including the so-called “missed quarter” relative to investor expectations.

We may experience delays in the deployment of new products.

Our past sales have resulted from our ability to anticipate changes in technology, industry standards and telephone company service offerings, and to develop and introduce new and enhanced products and services. Our continued ability to adapt to such changes will be a significant factor in maintaining or improving our competitive position and our prospects for growth. Factors resulting in delays in product development include:

There can be no assurance that we will successfully introduce new products on a timely basis or achieve sales of new products in the future. In addition, there can be no assurance that we will have the financial and manufacturing resources necessary to continue to successfully develop new products or to otherwise successfully respond to changing technology standards and telephone company service offerings. If we fail to deploy new products on a timely basis, then our product sales will decrease, our quarterly operating results could fluctuate, and our competitive position and financial condition would be materially and adversely affected.

The telecommunications industry is a highly competitive market and this competition may result in operating losses, a decrease in our market share and fluctuations in our revenue.

We expect continuing competition as the DSL market continues to evolve. Because we are significantly smaller than many of our competitors, we may lack the financial resources needed to increase our market share. Many of our competitors are much larger than us and can offer a wider array of different products and services required for a telephone company’s business than we do.

We expect continued aggressive tactics from many of our competitors such as:

Our lack of backlog may affect our ability to adjust to an unexpected shortfall in orders.

Because of customer ordering demands we generally ship products within a short period after receipt of an order, we typically do not have a material backlog (or known quantity) of unfilled orders, and our revenues in any quarter are substantially dependent on orders booked in that quarter. Our expense levels are based on anticipated future revenues and are relatively fixed in the short-term. Therefore, we may be unable to adjust spending in a timely manner to compensate for any unexpected shortfall of orders. Accordingly, any significant shortfall of demand in relation to our expectations or any material delay of customer orders would have an immediate adverse impact on our business and operating results.

Industry consolidation could make competing more difficult.

Consolidation of companies offering high-speed telecommunications products is occurring through acquisitions, joint ventures and licensing arrangements involving our competitors, our customers and our customers’ competitors. We cannot provide any assurances that we will be able to compete successfully in an increasingly consolidated telecommunications industry. Any heightened competitive pressures that we may face may have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and result of operations.

We depend on a limited number of customers who are able to exert a high degree of influence over us and loss of a major customer could adversely impact our business.

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We have and will continue to depend on the large Regional Bell Operating Companies as well as other telephone carriers including smaller local telephone carriers and new alternative telephone carriers, for substantially all of our revenues. Sales to the Regional Bell Operating Companies accounted for approximately 78.1%, 77.5% and 76.8% of our revenues in fiscal 2006, 2005 and 2004, respectively. Consequently, our future success will depend upon:

The Regional Bell Operating Companies and our other customers are significantly larger than we are and are able to exert a high degree of influence over us. These customers may generally reschedule orders without penalty to the customer. Even if demand for our products is high, the Regional Bell Operating Companies have sufficient bargaining power to demand low prices and other terms and conditions that may materially adversely affect our business and operating results.

Any attempt by a Regional Bell Operating Company or our other customers to seek out additional or alternative suppliers or to undertake the internal production of products would have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results. The loss of any of our customers could result in an immediate decrease in product sales and materially and adversely affect our business.

Conference Plus’s customer base is very concentrated as its top ten customers represent a large portion of total revenue. Customers of Conference Plus have expanded their requirements for our services, but there can be no assurance that such expansion will increase in the future. Additionally, Conference Plus’s customers continually undergo review and evaluation of their conferencing and meeting services to evaluate the merits of bringing those services in-house rather than outsourcing those services. There can be no assurance in the future that Conference Plus’s customers will not bring some portion or all of their conferencing and meeting services in-house. Conference Plus must continually provide higher quality, lower cost services to provide maintain and grow its customer base. Any loss of a major account, would have a material adverse effect on Conference Plus. In addition, any merger or acquisition of a major customer could have a material adverse effect on Conference Plus.

Our customers have lengthy purchase cycles that affect our ability to sell our products.

Prior to selling products to telephone companies, we must undergo lengthy approval and purchase processes. Evaluation can take as little as a few months for products that vary slightly from existing products or up to a year or more for products based on new technologies such as DSL products. Accordingly, we are continually submitting successive generations of our current products as well as new products to our customers for approval. The length of the approval process can vary and is affected by a number of factors, including:

The requirement that telephone companies obtain FCC or state regulatory approval for most new telephone company services prior to their implementation has in the past delayed the approval process. Such delays in the future could have a material adverse affect on our business and operating results. While we have been successful in the past in obtaining product approvals from our customers, there is no guarantee that such approvals or that ensuing sales of such products will continue to occur.

Our services are affected by uncertain government regulation and changes in current or future laws or regulations could restrict the way we operate our business.

Many of our customers are subject to regulation from federal and state agencies, including the FCC and various state public utility and service commissions. While these regulations do not affect us directly, the effects of regulations on our customers may adversely impact our business and operating results. For example, FCC regulatory policies

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affecting the availability of telephone company services and other terms on which telephone companies conduct their business may impede our penetration of local access markets.

In addition, our business and operating results may also be adversely affected by the imposition of tariffs, duties and other import restrictions on components that we obtain from non-domestic suppliers or by the imposition of export restrictions on products that we sell internationally. Internationally, governments of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and numerous other countries actively promote and create competition in the telecommunications industry. Changes in current or future laws or regulations, in the U.S. or elsewhere, could materially and adversely affect our business and operating results.

Potential product recalls and warranty expenses could adversely affect our ability to remain profitable.

Our products are required to meet rigorous standards imposed by our customers. Most of our products carry a limited warranty ranging from one to two years for CNE products and seven to ten years for NSA products. In addition, our supply contracts with our major customers typically require us to accept returns of products within certain time frames or indemnify such customers against certain liabilities arising out of the use of our products. Complex products such as those offered by us may contain undetected errors or failures when first introduced or as new versions are released. Despite our testing of products and our comprehensive quality control program, there is no guarantee that our products will not suffer from defects or other deficiencies. Although historically we have not experienced material problems with product defects, recalls, returns or indemnification claims, if such claims exceed our reserves for such claims, our business could be harmed. Such recalls, returns or claims and the associated negative publicity could result in the loss of or delay in market acceptance of our products, affect our product sales, our customer relationships, and our ability to generate a profit.

Investors could be adversely affected by future issuances and sales of our securities.

Sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market could adversely affect the market price of our securities. Westell has 55,607,834 shares of common stock outstanding as of June 2, 2006. Options to purchase 9,098,258 shares of class A common stock, 7,370,396 of which are currently exercisable, are also outstanding on June 2, 2006. These obligations could result in substantial future dilution with respect to our common stock.

We rely on our intellectual property that we may be unable to protect, or we may be found to infringe the rights of others.

Our success will depend, in part, on our ability to protect trade secrets, obtain or license patents and operate without infringing on the rights of others. We rely on a combination of technical leadership, trade secrets, copyright and trademark law and nondisclosure agreements to protect our non-patented proprietary expertise. These measures, however, may not provide meaningful protection for our trade secrets or other proprietary information. Moreover, our business and operating results may be materially adversely affected by competitors who independently develop substantially equivalent technology.

In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect our proprietary rights to the same extent as U.S. law. The telecommunications industry is also characterized by the existence of an increasing number of patents and frequent litigation based on allegations of patent and other intellectual property infringement. From time to time we receive communications from third parties alleging infringement of exclusive patent, copyright and other intellectual property rights to technologies that are important to us.

There is no guarantee:

Further, such litigation, regardless of its outcome, could result in substantial costs to and diversion of our efforts. Any infringement claim or other litigation against or by us could have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results.

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Business interruption could prevent our ability to deliver product and services to our customers and could adversely affect our business.

Our operations could be impacted by business interruptions such as fire, flood, power loss and other events beyond our control. We have a detailed disaster recovery plan and business interruption insurance but these may not be sufficient to fully cover losses that may occur.

We may engage in future acquisitions or fund raising activity that could dilute our current stockholders.

We expect to continue to review potential acquisitions and we may acquire businesses, products or technologies in the future. In addition, the Company may decide to raise additional capital to fund its operations. In order to accomplish these activities, acquisitions and fund raising, we could:

These events could harm our business and/or the price of our common stock. Acquisitions also entail numerous integration risks that could adversely affect our business.

Conference Plus’s large competitors could adversely affect Conference Plus’s ability to maintain or increase its market share.

Conference Plus participates in the highly competitive industry of voice, video, and multimedia conferencing and meeting services. Competitors include stand-alone conferencing companies and major telecommunications providers. Conference Plus’s ability to sustain growth and performance is dependent on its:

Any increase in competition could reduce our gross margin, require increased spending on sales and marketing, and otherwise materially adversely affect our business and operating results.

Our principal stockholders can exercise significant influence that could discourage transactions involving a change of control and may affect your ability to receive a premium for class A common stock that you purchase.

As of June 2, 2006, as trustees of a voting trust containing common stock held for the benefit of the Penny family and the Simon family, Robert C. Penny III and Melvin J. Simon have the exclusive power to vote over 47.8% of the votes entitled to be cast by the holders of our common stock. In addition, members of the Penny family who are beneficiaries under this voting trust are parties to a stock transfer restriction agreement which prohibits the beneficiaries from transferring any class B common stock or their beneficial interests in the voting trust without first offering such class B common stock to the other Penny family members. Certain Penny family members also own or are beneficiaries of trusts that own shares outside of the voting trust. As trustees of the Voting Trust and other trusts, Messrs. Penny and Simon control 52.7% of the voting stock. Consequently, we are effectively under the control of Messrs. Penny and Simon, as trustees, who can effectively control the election of all of the directors and determine the outcome of most corporate transactions or other matters submitted to the stockholders for approval. Such control may have the effect of discouraging transactions involving an actual or potential change of control, including transactions in which the holders of class A common stock might otherwise receive a premium for their shares over the then-current market price.

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ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None

The Company property leases consist of the following:

The Basingstoke lease has an early termination clause that allows the Company to exit the lease at 12 and 24 months with a 6 month lease penalty. Although the Company’s Aurora, Illinois manufacturing facility is currently operating below maximum capacity, the Company utilizes third-party subcontractors to help fulfill fluctuations in customer demands that could be at times beyond the manufacturing capacity of the Aurora facility. The Company has a plan to expand the manufacturing capacity of its Aurora facility when and if that is necessary.

The Company is involved in various legal proceedings incidental to the Company’s business. In the ordinary course of our business, we are routinely audited and subject to inquiries by governmental and regulatory agencies.

Management believes that the outcome of such proceedings will not have a material adverse effect on our consolidated operations or financial condition.

None.

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PART II

The Company's Class A Common Stock is quoted on the NASDAQ National Market under the symbol "WSTL." The following table sets forth for the periods indicated the high and low sale prices for the Class A Common Stock as reported on the NASDAQ National Market.

As of June 2, 2006, there were approximately 840 holders of record of the outstanding shares of Class A Common Stock and 6 holders of record of Class B Common Stock.

Dividends

The Company has never declared or paid any cash dividends on its common stock and does not anticipate paying any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. The Company currently intends to retain any future earnings to finance the growth and development of its business. In addition, the Company’s credit facility restricts the Company’s ability to pay dividends.

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The following selected consolidated financial data as of March 31, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003 and 2002 and for each of the five fiscal years in the period ended fiscal year 2006 have been derived from the Company's consolidated financial statements, which have been audited by Ernst & Young LLP. The data set forth below is qualified by reference to, and should be read in conjunction with, "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," the Consolidated Financial Statements and the related Notes thereto and other financial information appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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ITEM 7.         MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS.

Overview

The following discussion should be read together with the Consolidated Financial Statements and the related Notes thereto and other financial information appearing elsewhere in this Form 10-K. All references herein to the term “fiscal year” shall mean a year ended March 31 of the year specified.

The Company commenced operations in 1980 as a provider of telecommunications network transmission products that enable advanced telecommunications services over copper telephone wires. Until fiscal 1994, the Company derived substantially all of its revenues from its Network Service Access (NSA) product lines, particularly the sale of Network Interface Unit (NIU) products and related products. NIU products accounted for approximately 10%, 10% and 15% of revenues in fiscal years 2006, 2005 and 2004, respectively. The Company introduced its first DSL products in fiscal 1993 and these products accounted for approximately 69%, 68% and 58% of revenues in fiscal 2006, 2005 and 2004, respectively. NIU products and DSL products are the two major products within the Company’s telecom equipment business. Telecom equipment constituted approximately 84%, 84% and 81% of revenues in fiscal 2006, 2005 and 2004, respectively. The Company has also provided audio teleconferencing services since fiscal 1989, which constituted approximately 16%, 16% and 19% of revenues in fiscal 2006, 2005 and 2004, respectively. Westell realizes the majority of its revenues from the North American market.

The Company is comprised of two segments: telecommunications equipment manufacturer and teleconference services bureau.

The equipment manufacturing segment of the Company’s business consists of two product lines, offering a broad range of products that facilitate the broadband transmission of high-speed digital and analog data between a telephone company's central office and end-user customers. These two product lines are:

The Company’s teleconference service segment is comprised of a 91.5% owned subsidiary, Conference Plus, Inc. Conference Plus provides audio, video, and web conferencing services. Businesses and individuals use these services to hold voice, video or web conferences with many people at the same time. Conference Plus sells its services directly to large customers, including Fortune 1000 companies, and serves other customers indirectly through its private label reseller program.

The prices for the products within each market group vary based upon volume, customer specifications and other criteria and are subject to change due to competition among telecommunications manufacturers and service providers. Increasing competition, in terms of the number of entrants and their size, and increasing size of the Company’s customers because of past mergers, continues to exert downward pressure on prices for the Company's products. The Company expects average selling prices on its CNE products to decline less than 20% in fiscal year 2007.

On November 18, 2005, SBC (now AT&T Inc.) acquired AT&T Corp. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2006, sales to AT&T Inc. generated approximately 7.9% of the Company's total revenues, 0.5% in the equipment segment (primarily NSA products excluding sales made to AT&T Inc. through minority business enterprises) and 7.4% for the services segment. The largest customer of Conference Plus is AT&T Inc. and offers services similar to

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Conference Plus. The Company is unable to predict at this time how the merger will impact the Company's results of operations in the future.

On March 5, 2006 AT&T Inc. and BellSouth announced an agreement to merge the two companies. The merger indicated that the merger is subject to approval by shareholders of both companies as well as regulatory authorities and is subject to other customary closing conditions. The merger is expected to close within calendar 2006 or early 2007. BellSouth is the Company’s second largest customer. The Company is unable to predict at this time how the merger will impact the Company’s results from operations in the future.

The Company's customer base is highly concentrated and comprised primarily of the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs), independent domestic local exchange carriers and public telephone administrations located outside the U.S. Due to the stringent quality specifications of its customers and the regulated environment in which its customers operate, the Company must undergo lengthy approval and procurement processes prior to selling its products. Accordingly, the Company must make significant up front investments in product and market development prior to actual commencement of sales of new products.

To remain competitive, the Company must continue to invest in new product development and invest in targeted sales and marketing efforts to cover new product lines. Failure to increase revenues from new products, whether due to lack of market acceptance, competition, technological change or otherwise, would have a material adverse effect on the Company's business and results of operations. The Company expects to continue to evaluate new product opportunities and engage in extensive research and development activities.

The Company is focusing on expanding its product offerings in the equipment segment from basic high speed broadband to more sophisticated applications such as VoIP, in-premise networking; wireless/wireline convergence, IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) and FMC (Fixed Mobile Convergence); video / IPTV and multifunctional broadband appliances. This will require the Company to continue to invest in research and development and sales and marketing, which could adversely affect short-term results of operations. The Company expects to increase spending in research and development and sales and marketing by approximately 25% in fiscal year 2007 compared to fiscal year 2006 to take advantage of these market opportunities. In view of the Company’s reliance on the DSL market for revenues and the unpredictability of orders and pricing pressures, the Company believes that period-to-period comparisons of its financial results are not necessarily meaningful and should not be relied upon as an indication of future performance.

In the CNE equipment manufacturing segment, the Company is focusing on the evolving broadband demand, which includes increased bandwidth, richer application sets, converged capabilities and higher complexity. The Company has introduced products including the Westell MediaStations^TM, UltraLine ™, ProLine^TM, VersaLink^TM, and TriLink^TM, which are targeted at the home networking, small office/home office (SOHO) and small business markets. The Company continues to support the multimedia always-on-broadband appliance gateway product Verizon One. The Company has multiple evaluations and is entering trials for TriLink^TM, TriLink^TM IMS, UltraLineII^TM and the Westell MediaStation^TM, a variation of the Verizon One product marketed outside of the United States. The Company continues to focus on expanding existing and new products into the international market consisting primarily of Europe and Canada.

The Company expects the overall NSA market to decline annually by approximately 10% as the transition to high-speed digital service continues. This decline could impact the Company’s future revenue. The Company acquired 100% of the common stock of HyperEdge Corporation, on December 29, 2005 with the goal of strengthening its position in the NSA market. With the addition of HyperEdge the Company hopes to increase its market share in mountings and NIU’s. The Company also plans to invest in new product areas to compliment wireless and fiber applications.

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Critical Accounting Policies

The Company uses estimates and judgements in applying its accounting policies that have a significant impact on the results reported in the consolidated financial statements. The following are the Company’s most critical accounting policies.

Accounts receivable

The Company sells products primarily to various telecommunications providers and distributors. Sales to these customers have varying degrees of collection risk associated with them. Judgment is required in assessing the realization of these receivables based on aging, historical experience and customer’s financial condition.

Inventory reserves

The Company reviews ending inventory for excess quantities and obsolescence based on its best estimates of future demand, product lifecycle status and product development plans. The Company also evaluates ending inventory for lower of cost or market. Prices related to future inventory demand are compared to current and committed inventory values.

Inventory purchase commitments

In the normal course of business, the Company enters into commitments for the purchase of inventory. The commitments are at market rates and normally do not extend beyond one year. Should there be a dramatic decline in revenues, as there was in fiscal 2002, the Company may incur excess inventory and subsequent losses as a result of these commitments. The Company has established reserves for potential losses on such commitments.

Valuation Allowance for Deferred Tax Assets

The Company has significant deferred tax assets that resulted primarily from historically generated net operating losses. A valuation allowance has been provided for a portion of these deferred tax assets that management believes it is more likely than not that will not be utilized. The Company assesses the realizability of deferred tax assets through an analysis of projected future taxable income in the jurisdictions where the deferred tax assets reside.

Goodwill and Intangibles

Accounting rules require that the Company evaluate goodwill for impairment annually. The Company determined that it operated in two reporting units for the purpose of completing the impairment test of goodwill. These reporting units are telecom equipment and telecom services. The Company utilizes the comparison of its market capitalization and third party appraisal of its telecom services reporting unit to book value as an indicator of potential impairment. The Company performed its annual impairment test in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2006. These tests showed no impairment of goodwill. On an ongoing basis, the Company reviews intangible assets and other long-lived assets other than goodwill for impairment whenever events and circumstances indicate that carrying amounts may not be recoverable. If such events or changes in circumstances occur, the Company will recognize an impairment loss if the undiscounted future cash flows expected to be generated by the asset are less than the carrying value of the related asset. The impairment loss would adjust the asset to its fair value.

Software Development

The Company accounts for software development costs under FAS86, Accounting for the Costs of Computer Software to Be Sold, Leased, or Otherwise Marketed. The Company reviews software development to determine when technological feasibility is reached. At such time, development costs will be capitalized as intangible assets. These intangible assets will be amortized over the product life once the product is available for customer use. At of March 31, 2006, the Company had $413,000 in capitalized costs.

New Accounting Pronouncements

In December 2004, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued SFAS No. 123R, “Share-Based Payment” (“SFAS 123R”). Under this new standard, companies will no longer be able to account for share-based compensation transactions using the intrinsic value method in accordance with APB 25.  Instead, companies will be required to account for such transactions using a fair-value method and recognize the expense over the service period.   On April 14, 2005, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced the adoption of a rule that defers the required effective date of SFAS 123R for registrants to the beginning of the first fiscal year beginning after June

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15, 2005.  The Company will adopt this statement in the first quarter of its 2007 fiscal year using the modified prospective method. The adoption of SFAS 123R is expected to result in an additional pre-tax expense of $1.0 million in fiscal year 2007 plus an amount to be determined for options granted in the fiscal year.

Results of Operations

The following table sets forth the percentage of revenues represented by certain items in the Company's statements of operations for the periods indicated:

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Fiscal Years Ended March 31, 2006, 2005 and 2004

In fiscal year 2006 consolidated revenues increased 4.8%. Revenue in the equipment segment increased 5.4% comprising of a 6.2% increase in CNE product revenue and 2.0% increase in NSA product sales. The increase in CNE product revenue was due to a 24.1% increase in unit volume offset in part by a 17.4% decrease in the average selling price per unit. The increase in NSA was due to the inclusion of approximately $4.6 million of revenue resulting from the acquisition of HyperEdge. Without the acquisition, revenue would have decreased by $3.7 million or 8.8%. This decrease in revenue is due primarily to $2.3 million of non-recurring revenue noted below that was present in fiscal year 2005 and not in fiscal year 2006. In addition, the overall decrease in NSA product revenue is due to reduced demand resulting from the migration by telephone companies to high-speed digital transmission products. Revenue in the services segment increased by 1.5% in fiscal year 2006. This increase was due to an increase in minutes billed offset in part by lower revenue per minute at the Company’s Conference Plus, Inc. subsidiary. In fiscal year 2005 consolidated revenues increased 14.6%. Revenue in the equipment segment increased 18.6% comprising of a 35.1% increase in CNE product revenue offset in part by a 22.4% decrease in NSA product sales. NSA product revenue in the fiscal year 2005 included an $883,000 contractual settlement from a customer, $900,000 of non-recurring revenue and approximately $500,000 of revenue from a product line subsequently sold. The increase in CNE revenue was due to a 37% increase in units sold and offset in part by a 4.6% decrease in average sell price per unit. The decrease in NSA revenue was due to price reductions and the transition by telephone companies to networks that deliver high speed digital transmission services. The decrease in NSA product revenue was also impacted by the sale of Data Station Termination product lines that occurred in the first quarter of fiscal 2005. Revenue in the services segment decreased 2.0% due to less revenue per call minute offset in part by an increase in minutes at the Company’s Conference Plus, Inc. subsidiary.

The improved gross margin in the equipment segment in fiscal year 2006 was due primarily to improvements in material costs. An $883,000 and $875,000 contractual settlement positively impacted the fiscal 2005 and 2004 equipment gross margin, respectively, that had no corresponding cost of sales. Fiscal year 2005 gross margins were negatively impacted by $3.8 million of expediting costs from the VersaLink^TM product. Fiscal 2004 also benefited from reduced per unit material, labor, and handling costs, particularly in the CNE product group that resulted from a 45% increase in unit volume. The gross margin in the services segment decrease in fiscal year 2006 was due primarily to increased overhead costs related to credit card fees, maintenance and web outsourcing costs. Services margin improved in fiscal year 2005 due to lower long distance rates and the absence of a contract termination charge of $775,000 that was present in fiscal year 2004. The Company believes continued pricing pressures and continued reduction of NSA sales affecting its equipment segment could continue to adversely impact margins in the future. It is the Company’s strategy to offset the effects of these anticipated price reductions with continued cost reductions and introducing new products that have higher sales prices and margins.

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Sales and marketing expenses were 8.8%, 8.2% and 8.6% of revenues, in fiscal year 2006, 2005 and 2004 respectively. Sales and marketing expense in the equipment segment increased in fiscal year 2006 due primarily to the acquisition of HyperEdge. The services segment sales and marketing expense increase in fiscal year 2006 was due primarily to 25% more employees hired to increase sales made directly to end users at Conference Plus. The equipment segment sales and marketing expense increase in fiscal year 2005 was due primarily to increased use of temporary consulting and labor. The services segment sales and marketing expense increase in fiscal year 2005 was due to an increase in the number of sales and marketing employees. Sales and marketing expense is expected to increase in fiscal year 2007, primarily in the equipment segment. The Company believes that sales and marketing expense in the future will continue to be a significant percent of revenue and will be required to expand its product lines, bring new products to market and service customers.

Research and development expenses in fiscal 2006, 2005 and 2004 were 7.2%, 5.9% and 7.4% of revenues, respectively. Research and development expenses are incurred primarily in the equipment segment of the business. The fiscal year 2006 increase was due primarily to $1.9 million of software capitalization in fiscal year 2005 that offset engineering expenses. No such offset occurred in fiscal 2006. In addition, the Company spent an additional $1.3 million on outside engineering services and there were approximately 11% more engineering employees in fiscal 2006 compared to 2005 that resulted in $725,000 more salary expense for the year. The increase in engineering service and employees was primarily to support the development of the Verizon One and video transport products. The fiscal year 2005 decrease was due primarily to software capitalization of $1.9 million. In addition, the Company received $900,000 from customers to fund engineering projects which was offset in part by a $300,000 expense for engineering performed by a third party in fiscal 2005. There were no customer funded engineering projects in fiscal 2004 or fiscal 2006. The Company believes that research and development expenses will increase in fiscal year 2007 as the Company continues to focus on VoIP, in-premise networking, wireless/wireline convergence including IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) and FMC (Fixed Mobile Convergence), video / IPTV and multifunctional broadband appliances, user interfaces and other broadband applications.

General and administrative expenses in fiscal 2006, 2005 and 2004, respectively, were 5.8%, 6.4% and 7.4% of revenues, respectively. The fiscal year 2006 decrease in general and administrative expenses in the equipment segment was due primarily to lower franchise and sales and use tax expense. The fiscal year 2006 decrease in general and administrative expenses in the services segment was due primarily to lower bad debt expense and professional services expenses. The fiscal year 2005 decrease resulted from the services segment of the business. The equipment segment expenses in fiscal year 2005 were flat overall with reductions in legal and bad debt expense offset by increases in professional services expense resulting from Sarbanes Oxley compliance costs.

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Intangible amortization. Intangible amortization was $1.4 million, $1.3 million and $1.5 million in fiscal 2006, 2005 and 2004, respectively. The intangibles consist of product technology related to the March 17, 2000 acquisition of Teltrend Inc. and product technology and customer relationships related to the December 29, 2005 HyperEdge Inc. acquisition.

Restructuring charge. The Company recognized a restructuring expense of $443,000 in the third quarter of fiscal year 2006. This charge included personnel costs relating to the termination of 17 employees at Westell Inc. As of March 31, 2006, $107,000 of these accrued costs remain unpaid.

On December 29, 2005, the Company acquired 100% of the stock of HyperEdge Corporation. The Company is currently implementing a restructuring plan to combine and streamline the operations of the companies to achieve synergies related to the manufacture and distribution of common NSA product lines. The Company estimates the costs of employee terminations, which were recorded as liabilities assumed in the acquisition, to be $300,000. Approximately 17 employees are estimated to be impacted by this plan. Any adjustments to this plan will be accounted for in accordance with SFAS No. 141. As of March 31, 2006, $8,000 of these costs have been paid leaving an unpaid balance of $292,000.

The Company recognized a restructuring expense of $698,000 in fiscal year 2004. This restructuring resulted from realigning the product focus due to product performance issues at Westell Limited that caused a workforce reduction of approximately 5 employees. In the quarter ended March 31, 2005, $248,000 of these charges were reversed as the Company was able to resolve these performance issues. As of March 31, 2006 no amounts remain unpaid.

The Company recognized restructuring expense of $2.6 million in fiscal year 2003. This charge included personnel and facility costs related primarily to the closing of a Conference Plus, Inc. facility and personnel and facility charges at Westell Limited. Approximately 25 employees were impacted by these reorganizations. In fiscal year 2005, the Company terminated a lease that was partially reserved for in the 2003 restructuring. This termination resulted in the reversal of $545,000 of restructuring for facility costs. As of March 31, 2006 no amounts remain unpaid.

A table that summarizes the restructuring charges and their utilization can be found in Note 13 to the Consolidated Financial Statements of the Company and is incorporated herein by reference.

Other income, net. Other income, net was $974,000, $896,000 and $615,000 million for fiscal years 2006, 2005, and 2004, respectively. Other income, net was primarily comprised of interest income earned on temporary cash investments and unrealized gains or losses on intercompany balances denominated in foreign currency. The increases in fiscal year 2006 over 2005 was due to higher levels of cash invested at better interest rates offset in part by an unrealized loss recorded on intercompany balances denominated in British Pounds. The increase in fiscal year 2005 over 2004 was due to higher levels of cash invested at higher interest rates and an unrealized gain recorded on intercompany balances denominated in British Pounds.

Interest Expense. Interest expense was $12,000, $60,000 and $743,000 for fiscal 2006, 2005 and 2004, respectively. The decrease in interest expense during each year is a result of lower obligations outstanding during the period under promissory notes, capital leases and vendor debt.

Income Taxes. Income tax expense was $10.1 million in fiscal year 2006. The Company increased its valuation allowance by $1.4 million in fiscal year 2006 to reserve for a portion of the state net operating loss carryforward that the Company expects to expire prior to usage. An income tax benefit of $12.8 million and $12.9 million was recorded in fiscal years 2005 and 2004, respectively. The benefit in fiscal year 2005 and 2004 was the result of the Company reducing its valuation allowances when it was determined that the deferred tax assets that were previously reserved could be realized through the generation of future taxable income.

Minority Interest. Minority interest expense was $304,000, $520,000 and $373,000 in fiscal years 2006, 2005 and 2004, respectively. Minority interest expense is the minority shareholders’ share of income at 91.5% owned subsidiary, Conference Plus Inc.

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Quarterly Results of Operations

The following tables present certain financial information for each of the last eight fiscal quarters The Company believes that the unaudited information regarding each of these quarters is prepared on the same basis as the audited Consolidated Financial Statements of the Company appearing elsewhere in this Form 10-K. In the opinion of management, all necessary adjustments (consisting only of normal recurring adjustments) have been included to present fairly the unaudited quarterly results when read in conjunction with the audited Consolidated Financial Statements of the Company and the Notes thereto appearing elsewhere in this Form 10-K. These quarterly results of operations are not necessarily indicative of the results for any future period.