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Motorola Solutions files protest against New York City transit award of 700 MHz TETRA radio system
Motorola Solutions has filed a formal protest against a decision by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York City to award PowerTrunk with a contract to build a TETRA radio network for the MTA bus system that would operate on 700 MHz public-safety spectrum.
Awarded last month, the MTA radio contract for the bus system was awarded to Parsons Transportation Group of NY and PowerTrunk, which developed the TETRA radio solution. Motorola Solutions filed its protest last week, claiming that its bid was $35 million less than the winning proposal and that it is illegal to deploy TETRA in the 700 MHz band.
“Motorola Solutions has formally protested the MTA's award, as our bid would save the authority $35 million,” Motorola said in a statement today. “We look forward to a fair hearing about the numerous issues we have raised about the process, concerns about interoperability of the proposed system with other public safety agencies and the suitability of the proposed radios.
“Improving transit safety through reliable and proven communications technology is a priority, and these issues must be resolved, so MTA employees, riders and New York taxpayers can be assured of the safety and efficiency of their transit-system communications.”
IWCE’s Urgent Communications contacted MTA officials by phone and e-mail in an effort to get the transit authority’s perspective on the matter, but those communications were not returned in time to be included in this article.
In a Feb. 21 letter to the MTA Finance Committee, Motorola Solutions outlined the reasons for its protest.
“Although NYCT [New York City Transit/MTA] argues that the reason [Motorola Solutions was not chosen as the vendor] was that we did not have a type-accepted radio, the type acceptance is wholly irrelevant,” the letter states. “Regardless of type acceptance, the FCC has expressly stated they will not allow [TETRA] deployment in 700 MHz.
“The MTA steered this award to the vendor with Type Acceptance in an attempt to avoid the lengthy process involved in clarification on the matter (Build it and ask for forgiveness later). It is unimaginable that the MTA would spend this kind of capital on a multi-year procurement and lack the approval to execute the system.”
TETRA is the public-safety LMR standard in Europe and many other parts of the world, but not in the United States, where P25 is the public-safety radio standard. The FCC has approved TETRA for use in the U.S., but not on public-safety spectrum—a fact that Motorola Solutions cited in its letter, quoting the FCC’s report and order of Sept. 19, 2012.
“With respect to the 700 MHz narrowband spectrum, the Commission’s rules require that 700 MHz narrowband radios use Project 25 Phase I technology on the 700 MHz narrowband interoperability channels, and there is no indication in the record that TETRA equipment would conform to this standard,” the 2012 FCC order states. “In addition, we note that the petitioner did not request that TETRA operation be authorized in the 700 MHz band. Accordingly, we do not consider the 700 MHz narrowband spectrum to be a candidate for TETRA operation.”
PowerTrunk, which was purchased by the Sepura Group last year, was selected by New Jersey Transit to deploy TETRA radio networks to replace Motorola Solutions’ networks. However, that transition has not happened, even through the TETRA project was completed in 2014, according to the letter from Motorola Solutions.
So this is how American
So this is how American business works, now. The reaction when you lose a bid is to protest? Should have worked harder BEFORE the bid award was made.
Typical Motorola sour grapes
Typical Motorola sour grapes & tactic’s. Regardless of FCC rules prohibiting TETRA on 700 MHz, they expect to win them all and silence the competition.
The above comments are valid,
The above comments are valid, however they don’t address the fact that TETRA is not approved for use by the FCC in the 700MHz band. That above all else must be the prime consideration. If the thought was to gain enough system sales (New Jersey Transit as another example) that eventually the FCC would have to make a consideration for TETRA in the band, I applaud the Noble Challenge, but there’s better ways to approach it I think. That’s a lot of Public money for a project that may never see a PTT because it can’t be approved. Thoughts?
Yeah – But its ok to use ADP
Yeah – But its ok to use ADP on a P25 system. So much for other brands on that system
So based on the comments
So based on the comments here, the fact that the selected system is illegal to deploy is completely overshadowed by a belief that Motorola is at fault for contesting the award? Do companies contest awards? All the time. Motorola does it, Tait does it, Ericsson and GE did it back in the day.
Motorola has lobbied long and
Motorola has lobbied long and hard to skew the US laws in favour of the under specced and under featured P25 Open “cough cough” Standard.
With P25 they can affect vendor lock in because of the proprietary layers that Moto put over the top of it. No way are they going to give up that overpriced cash cow without a fight.
Regardless of the laws that Moto lobbied for, good on the MTA for choosing the better technology.
Now the MTA need to lobby the FCC to have the laws changed to suit them, just like Moto have done in the past.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
I am sure that if Motorola
I am sure that if Motorola had won the award and proposed Tetra radios that the FCC would then permit Tetra on 700 MHz.
@Patriot58 @CameronM The
@Patriot58 @CameronM The truth of the matter is that Motorola is only protesting because they lost not because of using TETRA over 700MHZ. In fact Motorola proposed the exact same TETRA over 700MHZ and they did not have any concerns of FCC approval at the time.- Why not issue a protest during the RFP if they were so concerned?
Thanks for the tip. A
Thanks for the tip. A follow-up story has been posted.
How to win friends and
How to win friends and influence people – Moto style… One had hoped that such old-style protectionist business practices were a thing of the past, but clearly not.
The truth is that Motorola
The truth is that Motorola offered the exact ae TETRA over 700Mhz. This protest has nothing to do about FCC rules. If not they would have raised the issue during the RFP. Sorry @Cameron M @Patriot58
Thanks for the tip. A
Thanks for the tip. A follow-up story has been posted.