Motorola to Release LTE Gear in November

Motorola Solutions 700 MHz LTE networking and device gear will be available for purchase by Public Safety agencies beginning next month, according to an announcement at the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) in Chicago Monday.

The full commercial launch will make available the vendor giant's first version of fully integrated Public Safety LTE.  They expect the first version to be fully commercially released by November 11th of this year, with everything fully integrated.  Motorola is the first vendor to announce the release of commercial LTE on Band 14.
"We're proud to be there first," said Rick Keith, director of product management, according to Urgent Communications. 
Partnerships with Ericsson and Verizon have been vital to Motorola's end-to-end solution.  The company established a roaming arrangement with Verizon, and will use Ericsson LTE base-station equipment.

Caught In The Dark

Unknown Intellectual Property Problem Plagues Rebanding of EFJ Units

By Robert H. Schwaninger, Jr.

Copyright 2011

            As rebanding at 800 MHz drags on, the sources of delay in getting the job done seem to increase every month.  Broken loaner equipment, limited personnel, shifting priorities, complicated interoperability issues, software availability and many other challenges face public safety licensees that just want the darn thing to be over.

            Now, some public safety licensees are finding out that their rebanding is being put on hold while two manufacturers and Sprint Nextel sort out an intellectual property problem that is affecting thousands of EF Johnson radios.  The radios affected are those EFJ units that have Motorola software installed in them to allow the EFJ units to work in association with a Motorola network.

            When the units were originally sold to end users, the problem did not exist because the licensed software installed in the radios to allow operation with a Motorola network was part of the package.  So, as long as those units transmitted and received within certain bands, the permanently licensed software in the units would allow for access to the Motorola hardware.

A Technical Patch

            When rebanding began, EFJ recognized that to reband their units would require a revised software licensing agreement with Motorola to allow the EFJ units to be retuned and still operate in association with the Motorola hardware.  EFJ and Motorola entered into a licensing agreement that would allow EFJ units to be retuned for future operation on a rebanded Motorola network, however, for reasons that are not clear the license was given an expiration date of approximately five years.

            The license purchased by EFJ from Motorola for the revised software to accommodate rebanding was obviously a kind of technical patch to handle rebanding.  Why else would EFJ purchase a license that would only last for five years?  And why else would EFJ buy a limited quantity of access codes, enough to presumably only cover EFJ units then in the field operating on Motorola networks? 

            Sprint Nextel’s involvement becomes clear when you know that sometime before October, 2010, EFJ transferred over 2000 access codes representing the software license to Sprint Nextel, either by sale or otherwise.  According to sources, following October, 2010 the Motorola license for the software was to expire and EF Johnson may have transferred those access codes to Sprint Nextel in hopes that Motorola would not block Sprint Nextel’s distribution of access codes to EFJ end users as a part of rebanding.

            However, whatever the terms are between Sprint Nextel and Motorola in their master rebanding agreement, Motorola appears to be balking at the idea of Sprint Nextel’s distribution of the access codes formerly owned by EFJ.  Motorola is likely looking for additional payment to renew the now expired software license.  Meanwhile, thousands of EFJ units that are ready to be rebanded and the public safety agencies that own those radios are being held hostage by this licensing problem, because Sprint Nextel is not releasing the access codes in their possession.

           

Public Safety In The Dark   

            The contracts between the manufacturers and Sprint Nextel during the rebanding process have always been proprietary and all parties to those agreements have gone to great pains to maintain the confidentiality of those agreements.  Equipment pricing has been shielded from public view or agency oversight.  Labor costs and rebanding methodology have been negotiated without any input from public safety operators.

            But while manufacturers and Sprint Nextel have been able to black box their fraternal dealings, the FCC and Sprint Nextel have insisted on increasing levels of transparency from rebanding licensees.  The amount of information demanded in a reconciliation of a Frequency Reconfiguration Agreement would be sufficient to withstand a full blown audit.  “Tell us more” is the mantra repeated by Sprint Nextel and the Transition Administrator, even if the telling is a recitation of the obvious.

            This one-sided demand for information has vexed many a public safety licensee and has created additional administrative costs for licensees that is often never recovered.  This is particularly true given the backdrop of “foreseeability,” a weapon of choice for Sprint Nextel in its negotiations.  By merely contending that the costs were foreseeable, Sprint Nextel seeks an advantage in attempting to deny reimbursement for those costs if they exceed the original estimates. 

            But what of the problem of the expiring Motorola license for the EFJ units operating on a Motorola network?  The problem did not become known until after the license expired in October 2010 and suddenly thousands of EFJ units are left stranded.  Did Motorola or Sprint Nextel or EF Johnson warn anyone?  No.  Instead, this was only one of many backroom deals cut without public safety’s knowledge or involvement. 

            The FCC recently reiterated the obligation upon Sprint Nextel and licensees to provide all vital information that might materially affect rebanding time and costs.  Yet, this information was not provided to licensees by Sprint Nextel.  Therefore, licensees were allowed to negotiate their respective FRAs to their own peril and frustration.  And since Sprint Nextel accepted the access codes from EFJ, it had to have known that the problem would arise and yet, it remained mum.

            Meanwhile, EF Johnson has not renewed the Motorola license, Sprint Nextel is not distributing the access codes, and Motorola isn’t budging on its rights to that intellectual property.  Instead, it appears that all three are waiting for one of the others to make the first move, and rebanding of affected public safety units has come to a halt.

The Future Resolution Is Unknown

            Right now, the ultimate outcome of this matter is unknown.  Will end user agencies be, somehow, forced to replace EF Johnson radios with a new model, either EFJ or Motorola?  If so, will Sprint Nextel accept the cost of replacement as a portion of its rebanding costs?  Will the Motorola license be renewed, allowing Sprint Nextel to distribute the access codes?  Or will Motorola simply refuse to renew the license?  I cannot say.

            But what is abundantly clear is that public safety licensees were kept entirely in the dark about this matter and whatever decisions are made to resolve the problem, that resolution cannot include forcing end user agencies to take a product they don’t want.  The solution falls on Sprint Nextel to come up with.  Maybe this time the negotiations will involve public safety’s participation, but don’t count on it. 

            Rebanding deals have consistently involved mushroom management of public safety’s reasonable agenda, to cause a safe, efficient, and cost-neutral outcome.  Even the facts contained herein may include some errors given the darkness that surrounds these kinds of dealings.  For that, I do not apologize given the nature of things.  However, I think that affected public safety agencies are entitled to an apology from Sprint Nextel and EF Johnson.  Just don’t be surprised if the mea culpas come with a confidentiality clause.

 

Google Buys Motorola Mobility

Google started its week off with the announcement of a big ticket purchase this morning. Motorola Mobility (which has focused all of its new cellular device models on the Android OS) was acquired by the company for $12.5 billion.

Google executives will host a conference call later today to give official comment. Executives from other Android manufacturers (HTC, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson) have already made their thoughts public. All are supportive and welcoming of the buyout, praising Google's commitment to "defending" Android, its partners, and the mobile ecosystem.

Motorola Solutions remains in tact as a Public Safety communications vendor.

FCC: House Grants Extension on Competition Inquiry

The letter sent on April 20, 2011 to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski from the House Energy and Commerce Committee requested a reply no later than May 5. An extension was granted this week, allowing more time for a reply to the Committee's concerns about Motorola Solutions' dominance in the LMR Public Safety network. Motorola has the lion's share of the marketplace, currently conducting about 80% of equipment business in the marketplace.

The letter outwardly questions whether having such a dominant vendor is the cause of proprietary solutions creating interoperability issues and resulting in higher costs in the Public Safety sector. The Committee was troubled by news that agencies applying for 700 MHz waivers have already selected Motorola as their vendors. In actuality, there have been waivers granted for 20 agencies to use spectrum allocated to the Public Safety Spectrum Trust (PSST) and 32 entities who have requested such waivers. Only two of these agencies have officially selected Motorola as their vendor for deployment of their 700 MHz broadband networks. The two agencies, Harris County, Texas and the San Francisco Bay Area, both have concerns surrounding their projects. Harris County's 700 MHz spectrum waiver is still pending approval, and San Francisco's system has been plagued with bureaucratic missteps and budgeting oversights on their $50.6 million project.

Voices from the industry bring varying views, with former APCO president Richard Mignon calling the Committee's letter a "red herring," questioning a company whose previously effective products have given brought it the majority of Public Safety LMR business.  Some are relieved that a longtime issue is being brought to light, while others hold vendors responsible for participating in the bid processes that are set in place by agencies to encourage competition.
For more on these matters, see the Urgent Communications article.

Broadband: Motorola Demos 700 MHz LTE

The Philadelphia Police Academy hosted the first demonstration from Motorola Solutions of 700 MHz LTE technology, prioritizing multiple video streams from a dash-mounted camera in a squad car connected with a Band 14 Motorola dongle.  The demo, exploring the technology's ability to prioritize multiple video streams automatically, was attended by Public Safety personnel from the region.  The two-day temporary wired network included video streaming from two fixed cameras transmitted to a "mock command center."  The command center utilized dynamic prioritization, according to Rishi Bhaskar, vice president of private broadband sales for Motorola.

This demonstration blazed trails in its ability to show an integrated interface from a real-time video intelligence (RTVI) application of mixed video streams.  The base station used for the demonstration was developed by Motorola's networks division, and is being sold to Nokia Siemens according to the deal announced in 2010.  The LTE base stations that will be used when in Motorola's Public Safety deployments will be from Ericsson. 

Several government agencies, including Philadelphia, have requested waivers from the FCC to allow Public Safety Broadband spectrum in the 700 MHz band in support of a first-responder LTE network.  Recent voices from Capitol Hill are encouraging legislators to reallocate the 700 MHz D-block spectrum to Public Safety, which would double broadband spectrum space.

See video of the demonstration from Urgent Communications.

FCC: House Committee Concerned About Motorola

Following the troubling San Francisco BayWEB fiasco, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce submitted a letter last Wednesday to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski regarding its concern about Motorola's dominance in the market of Public Safety (PS) communications.  The committee cites a June 30, 2010 letter questioning PS's "reliance upon an exclusive or limite vendor pool for equipment and devices."  The lack of a diverse selection of vendors causes prices that are higher than corresponding commercial prices and fewer options for interoperability.  The FCC's July 20, 2010 reply agreed with the committee, also sharing its fears that this market structure hinders movement toward an interoperable broadband public safety network. 

Since the problem persists, with Motorola being the chosen vendor of most waiver requests for early deployment of 700 MHz broadband networks, the committee called attention to five issues, requesting a reponse from the FCC regarding:

1. A list of waiver recipients and applicants and their vendors
2. Competitive bidding process information in waiver recipient jurisdictions
3. Confirmation that the vendor is supplying open, LTE standard-compliant equipment
4. Indication of whether said vendors intend to implement proprietary broadband capabilities, and impact on:
1. network and device equipment prices relative to commercial equipment
2. innovation in PS wireless technology
3. terminated product lines or new mandatory releases resulting in unique costs relative to commercial costs
4. interoperability on application, device, and network levels among networks from other vendors
5. ability of PS users to enter into partnerships with commercial wireless providers
6. competition in the market
7. the effect of the FCC's National Broadband Plan, which found that encouraging incentive-based partnerships with a variety of commercial operators would benefit PS
5. The dominant vendor's effects on construction of early deployed PS networks regarding:
1. adoption of final technical and operations rules, and costs of any of the rules calling for changes  (Would the agencies be responsible for these costs?)
2. achievement of a nationwide interoperable system at the device, application, and network levels

These questions have been on the minds of industry insiders for years, and it appears these issues will be addressed soon, with the help of Congressional attention.

Vendors: Verizon and Motorola Align for Public Safety

An alliance was announced Wednesday between Motorola Solutions and Verizon Wireless, providing LTE broadband solutions in the 700 MHz band. Funding issues often cause agencies to delay construction and interoperability, or drastically reduce the scale of their initial broadband wireless buildouts. Public-safety customers will have the ability to leverage LTE applications across Verizon's commercial network as a coordinated supplement to a private LTE network and roaming partner when the private network is not available.

“The solution that we’ve worked out with Verizon is to … offer customers the ability of a nationwide, enhanced carrier roaming package that pre-negotiates the technical and some of the business interfaces between private and public networks,” said Rick Keith, Motorola Solutions senior director of LTE product management, according to Urgent Communications. “So, we can facilitate nationwide roaming, we can put in real-time device application control and management and be able to facilitate procedural operations on handsets, whether they’re in public networks or in private networks, so they get a very similar experience.”

Users roaming between private Public Safety networks and Verizon's LTE systems, Motorola devices will be able to operate on the band 14 spectrum, as well as Band 13 Frequencies from Verizon in the 700 MHz band. Also, 2G/3G and Wi-Fi technology will be other enhancements.
For more information on the partnership, see the Urgent Communications article.