NetComm Wireless — 2 prefixes (MA-L)

A MAC address beginning with F8:CA:59 or 18:F1:45 identifies hardware from NetComm Wireless, an Australian networking-equipment manufacturer, and is typically seen on 4G/5G fixed wireless access devices, industrial IoT/M2M routers, and residential broadband gateways.

Two IEEE MA-L registrations group under this vendor slug: F8CA59, registered to "NetComm Wireless" at Level 5, 18-20 Orion Road, Lane Cove West NSW; and 18F145, registered to "NetComm Wireless Limited" at Level 2, 18-20 Orion Road, Lane Cove, Sydney. Both cite the same Orion Road street address, consistent with one company registered under two name-spellings over time.

Two other IEEE rows belong to related but legally distinct entities and are deliberately excluded from this entry: "NETCOMM LIMITED" (assignments 006064 and 004028) slugifies to the separate vendor-netcomm entry, and "NetComm Wireless Pty Ltd" (assignment 4435B9, Level 1, same Orion Road address) slugifies to vendor-netcomm-wireless-pty. This was verified by running the repo's own slugifyVendor() helper against each registry organization-name string.

NetComm is a long-running Australian networking company, founded in 1982 and credited with Australia's first dial-up modem, later trading as the ASX-listed NetComm Wireless Limited. It was acquired by US telecom-equipment maker Casa Systems, Inc. for roughly US$161m (announced 2019, closed 1 July 2019), then resold by Casa Systems during its bankruptcy to DZS Inc. for about US$7m in 2023.

The vendor's support pages describe a product line of 4G/5G fixed wireless access gear, fibre-to-the-distribution-point equipment, and industrial IoT/M2M routers and gateways, including named models such as the NWL-25 (Verizon-certified 4G LTE M2M router), the NTC-402 (4G LTE Cat6 industrial IoT router), and the NTC-140/NTC-140W family.

Multiple independently disclosed vulnerabilities against NetComm-branded router and gateway models, spanning 2015 through 2022, corroborate the brand as a real, widely deployed hardware line rather than a bare registration — these CVEs are tied to specific product models by firmware version, not to the F8:CA:59 or 18:F1:45 prefixes themselves.

Device class

4G/5G fixed wireless access equipment, industrial IoT/M2M routers, residential broadband gateways [Likely] — support.netcommwireless.com

Also seen on

named models NWL-25, NTC-402, NTC-140/NTC-140W [Likely] — sincereonetech.com, reliabilityweb.com

Registrant names

"NetComm Wireless" (F8CA59), "NetComm Wireless Limited" (18F145) [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry F8CA59, the IEEE MA-L registry 18F145

Headquarters

18-20 Orion Road, Lane Cove, NSW 2066, Australia [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry

Company status

Acquired by Casa Systems, Inc. (2019); later divested to DZS Inc. (2023) [Confirmed] — lightreading.com, datacenterdynamics.com

IEEE assignments

F8CA59 → "NetComm Wireless", Level 5, 18-20 Orion Rd, Lane Cove West NSW AU 2066; 18F145 → "NetComm Wireless Limited", Level 2, 18-20 Orion Road, Lane Cove, Sydney AU 2066 [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry F8CA59, the IEEE MA-L registry 18F145

Registry / block size

MA-L (24-bit OUI); 2 IEEE prefixes grouped under this vendor slug [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry

HQ / country

18-20 Orion Road, Lane Cove, NSW 2066, Australia (registry address) [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry

Company status

Acquired by Casa Systems, Inc. in 2019 (~US$161m, closed 1 July 2019); later sold by Casa Systems to DZS Inc. in 2023 (~US$7m) [Confirmed] — lightreading.com/mobile/casa-systems-completes-netcomm-acquisition-, datacenterdynamics.com (bankrupt-casa-systems-sells-netcomm-wireless-to-dzs-for-7m)

Device types

4G/5G fixed wireless access, industrial IoT/M2M routers, residential broadband gateways [Likely] — support.netcommwireless.com

Notable products

NWL-25 (4G LTE M2M router), NTC-402 (4G LTE Cat6 industrial IoT router), NTC-140/NTC-140W family [Likely] — sincereonetech.com, reliabilityweb.com, support.netcommwireless.com

Verified sample prefixes (both MA-L)

F8:CA:59, 18:F1:45 [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry

Related but distinct registrations (NOT this slug)

"NETCOMM LIMITED" (006064, 004028) → vendor-netcomm; "NetComm Wireless Pty Ltd" (4435B9) → vendor-netcomm-wireless-pty [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry 006064, the IEEE MA-L registry 004028, the IEEE MA-L registry 4435B9

Security context

independently disclosed CVEs against named NetComm-branded models, 2015-2022 (CVE-2015-6023, CVE-2015-6024, CVE-2018-14782 through CVE-2018-14785, CVE-2022-4873, CVE-2022-4874) — brand-level context, not tied to a specific OUI

[Confirmed] — seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2016/May/18, cisa.gov/news-events/ics-advisories/icsa-18-221-02, kb.cert.org/vuls/id/986018

Registration date

Unknown — IEEE's public OUI data publishes no assignment/registration date field [Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry

Analyst note

The F8:CA:59 and 18:F1:45 prefixes are distinct 24-bit OUI assignments, not sub-allocations of a shared IEEE registration-authority block; a MAC in either range identifies genuine NetComm Wireless hardware, but do not fold in the separately-registered NETCOMM LIMITED or NetComm Wireless Pty Ltd blocks, which are different registry rows under different slugs

[Confirmed] — the IEEE MA-L registry