L3Harris extends free BeOn offer through Aug. 30

L3Harris will continue providing its BeOn push-to-talk-over-cellular solution at no cost to healthcare, public-safety and other critical-infrastructure entities through Aug. 30 as part of the company’s offering during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a company official.

James Teel, director of product management for the L3Harris public-safety unit, said “around 1,200 users” took advantage of the free BeOn offer during the company’s initial three-month COVID-19 offer that expired at the end of May. L3Harris decided to extend the free BeOn offer for another three months in light of critical-infrastructure entities’ continued communications challenges with the pandemic, he said.

Although not publicly announced until yesterday, none of the critical-infrastructure BeOn users have been charged for using the service since the initial 90-day BeOn offer expired, Teel said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications.

Under the COVID-19 offer, qualifying entities can use the BeOn application from L3Harris at no cost and with no obligation to continue using the service after the pandemic is over. But some healthcare customers have indicated that they want to incorporate BeOn into their permanent communications portfolio after the COVID-19 pandemic period is over.

“We’ve had a couple move to that stage already,” Teel said.

Upon announcing the free BeOn service for a limited time, L3Harris officials expected the offer would appeal to healthcare entities seeking a push-to-talk solution that would work at COVID-19 test centers and other temporary facilities. The healthcare use case has proven to be popular, but BeOn also is being used to augment LMR communications for transit authorities and public-safety agencies like the National Guard, Teel said..

In addition, BeOn is being used within the education sectors, which Teel described as a “surprise.” Teel said school personnel—for instance, members of a campus security team—often are using BeOn to maintain communication with member of a talk group even while being located outside of the range of the school’s LMR system.