Motorola announces multiband P25 radio 

By Donny Jackson

Motorola today unveiled the APX 7000, a full-featured multiband portable P25 radio with integrated voice and data that comes in a hardened package and is designed to be user-friendly for public-safety users, according to company officials....

Ohio city deploys Firetide mesh 

By Mary Rose Roberts

System integrator KingOffice Service used Firetide’s wireless mesh nodes to build a network in Mansfield, Ohio, a city of more than 50,000 residents....

SkyTerra, MSV secure financing, consider offer for Inmarsat 

By Donny Jackson

SkyTerra Communication and subsidiary Mobile Satellite Ventures (MSV) recently announced that the hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners Funds has agreed to provide $500 million in debt financing...

Motorola launches latest point-to-point Ethernet bridges 

By Glenn Bischoff

Motorola recently announced the PTP300 series of wireless point-to-point Ethernet bridges in response to customer requests for a more flexible backhaul solution that would be faster and easier to install and provide a quicker return on investment....

Navajo Nation may lose satellite services that support public safety 

By Mary Rose Roberts

Bureaucratic red tape and a lack of federal funding threaten to shut down satellite services that support public-safety communications throughout the Navajo Nation’s 27,000-square-mile territory. ...

Hughes Telematics partners with Intrado for in-vehicle 911 

By Donny Jackson

Hughes Telematics yesterday announced an exclusive partnership with Intrado to provide emergency call-center services and route appropriate in-vehicle calls to the nearest public-safety answering point (PSAP) in the 911 network....

IAFC releases interim report on digital radios 

By Donny Jackson

Difficulties associated with digital-radio communications in a fireground environment could require several changes, including FCC reconsideration of its narrowbanding plans below 512 MHz...

Expand Networks' technology deployed by Air Force 

By Mary Rose Roberts

Expand Networks announced today that its wireless accelerators are part of the U.S. Air Force’s airborne battle-management platform, or Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) beyond-line-of-sight communication system, for application acceleration and bandwidth optimization....

Buffalo PD installs video surveillance system, catches perps 

By Mary Rose Roberts

Buffalo, N.Y., citizens now have an extra layer of security with the installation of wireless surveillance cameras throughout the city....

Senate passes 911 bill 

By Donny Jackson

U.S. senators yesterday passed legislation designed to help public-safety answering points (PSAPs) migrate to next-generation 911 by clarifying some policy issues that have been considered barriers to the transition....

Sprint says public safety will benefit from proposed WiMAX venture 

By Glenn Bischoff

Sprint Nextel said in a recent FCC filing that the new company being formed in partnership with Clearwire not only is expected to provide wireless broadband services via WiMAX technology at data speeds up to 6 Mb/s to American consumers but also to public-safety agencies and educational institutions....

Genesis lands large UK contract 

By Donny Jackson

Airwave, operator of a Motorola TETRA system serving public-safety organizations throughout the United Kingdom, this week confirmed that it has contracted with The Genesis Group to use the Texas-based company’s network-management software solutions in its network...

Memorylink sues Motorola over video streaming technology 

By Mary Rose Roberts

Wireless broadband technology provider Memorylink filed suit this week against Motorola charging the company breached a memorandum of understanding contract concerning a proprietary wireless video-streaming technology....

OnStar says slowdown feature will be on 2009 model vehicles 

By Donny Jackson

TAMPA--Production will begin next month on General Motors vehicles that will include a remote-slowdown feature that is designed to prevent unnecessary high-speed chases in the event that the vehicle is stolen, officials for OnStar said yesterday during a demonstration of the capability...

Transition to next-gen 911 filled with challenges 

By Donny Jackson

TAMPA--Specifications outlining what next-generation 911 systems will look like are expected to be completed this year, but it could be another year before similar documents are available that describe the migratory path legacy public safety answering points (PSAPs) should take to reach next-generation status. So said panelists speaking yesterday at the National Emergency Number Association’s (NENA) annual conference...