Johnson to supply radios to FBI

Oct 1, 2000 12:00 PM, Don Bishop

The E. F. Johnson Company subsidiary of Lincoln, NE-based Transcrypt International has landed a contract with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for Project 25 mobile radios. Under that contract, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has placed an initial order for units for its field locations.

Michael Jalbert, Transcrypt's chairman, said, "This is our first contract with the FBI, and it's a significant milestone for us. We believe that there is enormous potential for E.F. Johnson's digital mobile radios as the Justice Department embarks on its multimillion dollar program to upgrade its nationwide radio system to the APCO Project 25 digital standard."

The federal government has adopted the Project 25 standard as the digital wireless protocol for land mobile applications. Transcrypt is one of four companies offering Project 25 products. The federal government is making a transition from analog to digital wireless communications systems, with the move to the Project 25 standard expected to be completed by 2005.

The order from DOJ's Wireless Management Office (WMO) specifies Johnson 5300 series radios, which are backward-compatible with legacy encryption systems widely deployed in federal markets. The 5300 series provides multimode operation on existing wideband networks and on narrowband Project 25 digital networks.

WMO was created in 1998 to coordinate the development of a common wireless network for all DOJ agencies. The WMO was established to centralize oversight, management, financial management and procurement for the Justice Wireless Network. The WMO has conducted pilot studies in several major metropolitan areas to prove the viability of a shared DOJ system. The Justice Wireless Network system planning has been completed for more than 30% of DOJ wireless users and is now moving to the implementation stage.