Peter Allen, president and CEO of DragonWave Inc., made the prediction Friday after releasing the Ottawa company's figures for the year ending Feb. 28, in which it lost CDN$6 million (US$5.1 million) on sales of CDN$43.3 million.

That was better than the $8.3 million it lost the previous year.

Last year's sales were a seven per cent increase over fiscal 2008 and were helped by CDN$11 million in revenues in the fourth quarter, the second highest in the company's history. Allen says that figure will be beaten in the first quarter.

The figures are some evidence that a number of mobile service providers are willing to spend on upgrading their networks despite the increasing global recession.

The company added 55 new customers during the year, and has already started receiving revenue from an unnamed North American provider -- believed to be Clearwire -- for $15 million worth of its Horizon radios. It's Clear division is starting to build a WiMAX network across the U.S.