Feb 11, 2010 2:45 PM, By Donny Jackson

Harris this week announced that it is one of seven vendors selected to supply the U.S. Department of Justice with P25 radios under an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract with a potential overall value of $750 million over five years.

Under the IDIQ contract, agencies within the departments of Justice, Treasury, Commerce, Education, Transportation, Veterans Affairs and entities can procure P25 equipment.

“This vehicle was kind of created as a blanket IDIQ to potentially serve the land-mobile radio needs of a number of agencies,” said Kevin Kane, director of federal sales and business development for Harris RF’s public-safety and professional communications business unit.  “There are several other companies that also have contracts under this as well.”

Although the contract includes all types of P25 subscriber equipment, Kane said he believes agencies such as the FBI and FEMA will be particularly interested in Harris’ multiband Unity radios, which allow users to access different frequency bands while working in multiple jurisdictions that may include networks operated by federal, state or local agencies.

“I think there’s a great deal of excitement in the federal marketplace about the Unity radio,” Kane said. “I think there are certainly a number of missions that really demand multiband, as well as other capabilities of the radio, including embedded GPS, embedded Bluetooth and a noise-cancellation feature that I think will grow to be a mission-critical requirement for a number of users.”

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