Quarterly report pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d)

Acquisitions (Details Textual)

v2.4.1.9
Acquisitions (Details Textual) (USD $)
 3 Months Ended 9 Months Ended 12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2014
Sep. 30, 2014
Mar. 31, 2014
Dec. 31, 2013
Dec. 31, 2014
Dec. 31, 2013
Mar. 31, 2014
Mar. 02, 2014
Business Acquisition [Line Items]                
Business Acquisition, Percentage of Voting Interests Acquired               100.00%us-gaap_BusinessAcquisitionPercentageOfVotingInterestsAcquired
Business Acquisition, Cost of Acquired Entity, Cash Paid     $ 39,000,000us-gaap_PaymentsToAcquireBusinessesGross          
Working Capital Adjustment               5,000,000wstl_WorkingCapitalAdjustment
Business Combination, Acquisition Related Costs         39,000us-gaap_BusinessCombinationAcquisitionRelatedCosts   200,000us-gaap_BusinessCombinationAcquisitionRelatedCosts  
Revenue 14,043,000us-gaap_SalesRevenueNet     25,236,000us-gaap_SalesRevenueNet 65,514,000us-gaap_SalesRevenueNet 77,652,000us-gaap_SalesRevenueNet    
Operating income (loss) (27,583,000)us-gaap_OperatingIncomeLoss     2,023,000us-gaap_OperatingIncomeLoss (45,193,000)us-gaap_OperatingIncomeLoss 716,000us-gaap_OperatingIncomeLoss    
Goodwill 0us-gaap_Goodwill   31,102,000us-gaap_Goodwill [1]   0us-gaap_Goodwill   31,102,000us-gaap_Goodwill [1]  
Goodwill impairment 20,547,000us-gaap_GoodwillImpairmentLoss 10,555,000us-gaap_GoodwillImpairmentLoss     31,102,000us-gaap_GoodwillImpairmentLoss      
CSI [Member]                
Business Acquisition [Line Items]                
Goodwill 0us-gaap_Goodwill
/ us-gaap_StatementBusinessSegmentsAxis
= wstl_CSIMember 		  20,547,000us-gaap_Goodwill
/ us-gaap_StatementBusinessSegmentsAxis
= wstl_CSIMember 		  0us-gaap_Goodwill
/ us-gaap_StatementBusinessSegmentsAxis
= wstl_CSIMember 		  20,547,000us-gaap_Goodwill
/ us-gaap_StatementBusinessSegmentsAxis
= wstl_CSIMember 		 
CSI [Member]                
Business Acquisition [Line Items]                
Revenue 5,100,000us-gaap_SalesRevenueNet
/ dei_LegalEntityAxis
= wstl_CSIMember 		      22,900,000us-gaap_SalesRevenueNet
/ dei_LegalEntityAxis
= wstl_CSIMember 		     
Operating income (loss) $ 2,400,000us-gaap_OperatingIncomeLoss
/ dei_LegalEntityAxis
= wstl_CSIMember 		      $ 3,300,000us-gaap_OperatingIncomeLoss
/ dei_LegalEntityAxis
= wstl_CSIMember 		     
[1] Certain amounts have been adjusted to reflect measurement period adjustments related to the CSI acquisition.