Uniden To Exit Radar Detectors Market By Spring '03

FORT WORTH, TEXAS— Uniden said it would exit the radar detector market in early spring 2003, as the category does not fit with its core business of wireless communications products.

Rex Holloway, project management director, said the company would continue to pursue its FRS/GMRS, cordless phone and its new home networking businesses. He said of the radar detector category, "It's a limited sized category, it has no growth mode and we are a wireless communication company. It just doesn't fit into our business path."

When asked if the recent FCC ruling requiring new product designs on the part of radar detector suppliers was a cause of the decision, Holloway said, "not really." In July, the FCC ruled that certain radar detectors were interfering with credit card terminals in gas stations and other VSAT Very Small Aperture Terminals). It required radar detector suppliers to reduce emissions within a certain band, to pull non-compliant products from the shelves and manufacture new products. Uniden was among the supplier impacted.

Holloway said the company is, instead, offering a more aggressive FRS/GRMS lineup for 2003 and focusing on its core areas. "Now that we have a lot of momentum going in the cordless phone industry and we have a new home networking business.