Motorola Ahead of Schedule with New Software to Aid
Public Safety as They Move to New Spectrum
SCHAUMBURG, IL, Jan. 27, 2006 — Motorola (NYSE:MOT) has found a way to ease the
transition to new spectrum for public safety radio communications. More than a
year in the making, Motorola has developed software that enables equipment
critical to public safety communications to be rebanded to a new segment of the
800 MHz spectrum in order to provide less interference for public safety radio
communications.
The developed software has been tested and will be available approximately
three months ahead of schedule.
Public safety radio systems---those used by police, firefighters, emergency
medical technicians, and other systems operating on the 800 MHz band---have
been experiencing interference as a result of commercial wireless carriers
operating in the same or adjacent spectrum bands. To alleviate the interference
between the two types of systems, the FCC has ordered a reconfiguration of the
800 MHz band, moving public safety to a lower segment of the band and
commercial cellular networks to a higher segment. The developed software is
needed by radios that use the NPSPAC (National Public Safety Planning Advisory
Committee) portion of the band.
Motorola has made the spectrum swap easier to manage for first responders by
creating software that allows the radios they use every day to instantly
understand which band plan is in use at a given site. The new software
simplifies the transition by providing full interoperability throughout the
transition.
In addition to creating the new software, Motorola’s testing facility conducted
over 13,000 test cases to develop the most robust solution possible, across
each of the 90 platforms that were involved.
“It was important to Motorola to get this critical milestone completed early so
that we can help move the FCC’s process along and minimize disruption to our
customers as they transition to the new frequencies,” said Tony Marshall,
Motorola’s General Manager overseeing the 800MHz rebanding program. “We’re very
proud of the early completion on such an immense effort undertaken by our
software design and test teams and look forward to assisting our customers
throughout the rebanding process.”
Information on the impact of rebanding upon the various users in the band is
available on Motorola’s web site for rebanding. The site URL is www.motorola.com/800Rebanding
Source: Motorola press release
