Exports booming for alarm clock for terror warnings

Flensburg-based company 2WCom delivers to Sweden

Flensburg/Malmö. In the sensitive market with the fear of terrorist attacks, Flensburg-based electronics company 2WCom, a small team of specialized engineers and developers, can celebrate another success. The State of Sweden, that has already equipped 15,000 houses in the surroundings of the nuclear power plant Barsebäck near Malmö with alarm clocks for terror warnings built in Flensburg, has just decided to make use of its option to buy 20,000 further units made in Schleswig-Holstein. This was announced today by 2WCom’s Managing Director Werner Drews (42) and marketing expert Jens Polleit (51).

“The funny thing is that demand among the population is simply so high over there. Even people who are not living in the surroundings of a nuclear power plant want to have one of these devices” says Drews.

The alarm clock, which the Swedish Civil Defense Service “Räddnings Verket” installs in the households, automatically switches on when a governmental warning is issued – no matter whether the device is actually switched on or not. The alarm clock does not even have to be connected to the power network. A rechargeable battery ensures that the system remains ready for warnings during two and a half days – even in the event of a blackout. According to 2WCom this is the world’s only device with two tuners that react to the warning signal: one receives regular radio broadcasts, the other one uses the Radio Data System (RDS), which operates through the transmission stations of broadcasting corporations.

The order for the early warning system is worth 3.5 million Euro to the Flensburg-based electronics company. This is why Drews is almost sorry – in an economic sense – that Sweden only has three further nuclear power plants. “Unfortunately, the other regions are also not as densely populated as Barsebäck”, says the Managing Director, tongue in cheek. Anyway, the company cannot complain about a lack of requests for further information. Contacts have already been established with the French and Canadian governments, for example. And now that Schleswig-Holstein’s Minister of the Interior, Klaus Buß, is seeking to replace the traditional siren in Germany with digital alarms, Drews sees Germany as a new potential sales market. Over the past year, 2WCom has been in touch with the Federal Civil Defense Office in Bonn concerning this issue.

In addition, the company from Flensburg can also expect further orders from broadcasting corporations.

“We must use components that are so cheap that our prices can compete on the global market”, says Drews.

2WCom buy palettes of speakers from China, for example, which are then shipped to Schleswig-Holstein. The company with its 16 employees then outsources the actual assembly process. All nuts and bolts are tightened at AMS, just two blocks away.