With a background in military-grade communications gear, RF Linx focuses on providing high-quality product with affordable pricing.

by Jeff Goldman [December 29, 2006]

RF Linx was created in 2000 as a spin-off from Pole Zero Corporation, which built communications gear for the military, and according to David R. Newman, the company's sales and marketing manager, RF Linx remains focused on high quality product, both feature-rich and performance-driven. "We're not trying to make the cheapest product to appeal to the masses," he says.

While RF Linx sells its own amplifiers, the company also resells product lines from other manufacturers, including Pacific Wireless, Tranzeo, and Motorola Canopy. "We service all the common frequency bands—900 MHz, 4.9 to 5.8 GHz, and of course 2.4 GHz—as well as making custom products for shifted frequencies based on demand," Newman says.

RF Linx 9017 Cincinnati-Columbus Road (US Rt 42) West Chester, Ohio 45069 Voice: (513) 777-2774 mailto: sales@rflinx.com

.The company chose to build its own amplifiers, Newman says, because they saw a gap in the market. "Where we saw a bit of a void was a higher-end or Cadillac-type amplifier product that was not designed around price point engineering as much as feature set engineering," he says. "There's a place in the market for price point engineered product as well—we just saw our niche as bringing our military-flavored background into making a quality, high-end commercial product."

And Newman says RF Linx never rebrands other manufacturers' products. "There are other people that do that—it's, 'product of the week, put your label on it, sell it, get out, and bring in the next product of the week,'" he says. "We don't feel that's how we want to handle our customers."

Performance and pricing
In selecting products to resell, Newman says performance is key. "Our customers like to learn to depend on a certain product and how it's going to perform, and then they repeat those installations over and over," he says. "They have an expectation of consistency, and we'd like to service that."

Beyond performance, price competitiveness is another important consideration. "We look for, one, a recognized name brand, and two, quality versus price," Newman says. "There are some really great name brands that have some great products that are more priced for high-end commercial or cellular business, and their wireless offerings don't really fit that Wi-Fi price point."

And affordable pricing is key throughout the product line. "We pioneered the first sub-$100 Wi-Fi amp—we had the only, at the time, $99 high-end amplifier," Newman says. "And we price-compete in the sub-$200 market, with a quality-rich product that outperforms quality and spec versus anything else in the same price range."

The challenge, Newman says, is to combine high performance with affordable pricing. "We don't offer featureless, bare-bones products," he says. "We build features into the products that we think are necessary and required or requested by the customers, and then we try to come in as competitively priced as we can—often, we're within $20 of the competitor's pricing."

Another one of RF Linx's strengths, Newman says, is the fact that all products come with a two-year warranty—and the warranty covers lightning surges. "You really have to damage the product intentionally to void the warranty," he says. "Otherwise, send it back, and if we can't fix it, we'll replace it."

Equipment guidance
Particularly with its amplifier products, Newman says the company's ability to advise customers on the best equipment for their needs is also a key strength. "As wireless is emerging, we have a lot of new operators as well as experienced operators," he says. "So we often find ourselves talking to people about link budgets, the best frequencies to use, and the necessary equipment."

The point is that, particularly with an amplifier, the company doesn't want people deploying the product incorrectly. "We're the first person to say, 'You shouldn't use an amplifier,' if they shouldn't," Newman says. "Because the last thing I want to do is show up in a list with someone saying, 'Those RF Linx guys got me for $300—I bought an amplifier, and it didn't do what they said it would do.'"

Still, customers can and do purchase products directly through RF Linx's online storefront. In most cases, Newman says, customers will ask for advice the first time they buy, and then in the future, they'll simply be re-buying the same equipment in the future as they expand—and they'll do that quickly and simply through the online store.

Ultimately, Newman says it's the quality of RF Linx's amplifier equipment that really makes the company stand out—which all connects back to its history as a military-grade communications supplier. "We have military-level design talent building commercial-grade equipment," he says.

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