https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookie Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

Land Mobile Radio


News

Motorola Solutions seeks tech-neutral rebid of ESN in UK, opposes proposed Airwave price controls

Motorola Solutions seeks tech-neutral rebid of ESN in UK, opposes proposed Airwave price controls

  • Written by Donny Jackson
  • 22nd February 2023

Motorola Solutions asked the United Kingdom (UK) competition regulator to abandon proposed price-control measures on the Airwave TETRA network that serves UK public-safety agencies, instead calling for the UK government to replace LTE-based Emergency Services Network (ESN) via a “technology-neutral” procurement.

Motorola Solutions made the request in its most recent response to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which is scheduled to release the final decision from its investigation of LMR vendor giant’s work as the owner and supplier of the Airwave system. Claiming that Motorola Solutions has used its market dominance to realize “supernormal” profits from Airwave, the CMA has proposed implementing price controls that would cost Motorola Solutions more than $1 billion in projected revenues during the next four years. The CMA plans to release its final decision from the investigation next month.

But Motorola Solutions notes that the underlying problem with the UK public-safety communications market is not the pricing of the Airwave TETRA system but the failure of the UK Home Office to deliver the ESN, which was supposed to replace Airwave at the end of 2019. Current schedules call for the ESN to be ready at the end of 2026, but filings from both Motorola Solutions and the UK Home Office indicate that the ESN transition may not be completed until 2029 or later.

“ESN is the reason for the market investigation and should be considered the problem, not the potential solution,” Motorola Solution states in a response the CMA that was released last Friday.

With this in mind, Motorola Solutions recommends that the UK government procure a future public-safety communications system. Instead of mandating that the new system leverage 4G/5G technology—the model pursued with the ESN initiative—the bidding process should be a “technology-neutral open tender,” according to the Motorola Solutions filing to the CMA. This would allow Airwave to compete for the public-safety business.

“There is no reason for the CMA to avoid allowing competition to function effectively by way of a retender for the market, avoiding the mistakes that were made in respect of ESN,” the Motorola Solutions response states.

“Put simply, no ‘remedy’ is required other than a fair procurement process for the relevant market.”

As further evidence of the need for the ESN to be rebid on a technology-neutral basis, the Motorola Solutions response notes that the prime reason for transitioning from the Airwave TETRA network to an LTE-based ESN was to save the UK taxpayers’ money. However, that no longer appears to the be the case, as the “whole-life cost of ESN is reported to be £12 billion—the same as the cost of continuing to use Airwave,” according to the Motorola Solutions filing.

In the meantime, Motorola Solutions asserts that the UK government should honor the terms of the four-year Airwave contract extension covering 2023 through the end of 2026.

“The CMA must not interfere with the remaining term of the PFI Framework Agreement to December 2026 prior to the outcome of the new tender process, when such agreement has clearly worked extraordinarily well,” according to the Motorola Solutions response. “To do so would create serious and, in light of the economic evidence, wholly unjustifiable risk of destroying the credibility of any proposed future tender process by the UK government after December 2026.”

If adopted, this proposal would have significant ramifications for Motorola Solutions, which recently discloses in its SEC 10-K filing that the company’s largest customers are the U.S. government and UK government—each of which accounted for 7% of the company’s overall 2022 revenue. The SEC filing does not disclose how much of the UK government revenue comes from Airwave, but Airwave is acknowledged to be the largest contract with the nation.

But those UK-government revenue figures could be in jeopardy. Motorola Solutions already has announced that it will exit its role as part of the ESN vendor group, and the CMA has proposed that the company’s contracted Airwave revenue be reduced by more than 50%. In addition to losing previously contracted revenues, most industry sources believe Motorola Solutions’ public-safety communications opportunities in the UK could be limited in the future.

In its provisional decision that was released in October, the CMA proposed pricing regulations that would slash about $1 billion from the Airwave revenue that Motorola Solutions would receive under the current four-year contract that was signed in late 2021 with the UK Home Office.

At the heart of the investigation is CMA’s determination that Motorola Solutions has been realizing “supernormal” profits from its Airwave contract extensions with the Home Office. To address the matter, CMA’s provisional decision proposes limiting Motorola Solutions’ annual revenue from Airwave to less than 200 million pounds ($240.7 million)—less than half of the 433.5 million pounds ($521.7 million at current exchange rates) in revenue that Airwave reported in 2020.

 

Tags: homepage-featured-4 Companies 5G Coverage/Interference Federal Government/Military Funding Land Mobile Radio Long Term Evolution (LTE) News Policy Public Safety Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet Regional Coordination Standards State & Local Government System Design System Installation System Operation Tower & Site Wireless Networks News

Most Recent


  • Cyberattack closes emergency rooms in three states
    Ardent Health says it was the target of a cyberattack over Thanksgiving, in an incident that shut down the hospital operator’s emergency rooms in three states. The hospital operator, which oversees 30 hospitals in the U.S., said the attack was detected on the morning of Nov. 23 and was identified as a ransomware attack impacting […]
  • General Electric, DARPA hack claims raise national-security concerns
    General Electric and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have reportedly been breached, according to claims on the Dark Web that the organizations’ highly sensitive stolen data is up for sale. A screen capture from the Dark Web ad shows a threat actor named IntelBroker selling access credentials, DARPA-related military information, SQL files, and more. GE confirmed to […]
  • More 2G and 3G shutdowns loom in the U.S.
    UScellular and Cellcom recently set dates to shutter their aging wireless networks. The smaller network operators are following in the footsteps of their bigger, nationwide rivals, which are making similar moves. On its website, UScellular said it would shutter its 3G CDMA network on January 14, 2024. “Major wireless carriers have already shut down their […]
  • Report: Local cybersecurity programs are facing headwinds as threats, technologies evolve
    The evolving technological landscape isn’t just changing the nation’s social and economic norms, it’s also pushing local governments to adapt. A new analysis from the Public Technology Institute provides a snapshot of the challenges local cybersecurity programs are facing, and the priorities of city and county administrators as they guide organizations through an unprecedented era […]

One comment

  1. Avatar GBH 22nd February 2023 @ 7:44 pm
    Reply

    Nice to see someone fight back against these proprietary solutions that are never ending money pits from their customers standpoint! Surprised that the British are the ones to do this!

    Good for them!

Leave a comment Cancel reply

To leave a comment login with your Urgent Comms account:

Log in with your Urgent Comms account

Or alternatively provide your name, email address below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Final UK decision on Motorola Solutions’ role in Airwave pushed to March
  • UK Home Office officially cuts ESN ties with Motorola Solutions, but transition work still needed
  • UK Home Office seeks more Airwave measures against Motorola Solutions, including potential divestitures
  • Motorola Solutions to ‘exhaust’ legal options in UK over Airwave, if needed, CEO Brown says

Commentary


Land mobile radio (LMR) systems are just as vulnerable to cyberattacks as any other networks used in the public-safety sector. Here’s what to do about it.

  • 1
7th November 2023

September 3GPP Plenary meetings feature Release 18 progress, Release 19 beginnings

13th October 2023

Better technology can help solve the public-safety staffing crisis

26th June 2023
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.