Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Tyco Wins Contract to Build Towers for Emergency Network

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 01 May 2004 14:47:41 -0400

Tyco Wins Contract to Build Towers for Emergency Network
By AL BAKER and MARC SANTORA

Published: May 1, 2004

ALBANY, April 30 — By awarding New York State's largest technology
contract, the Pataki administration moved ahead on Friday with a plan to
construct a network of radio transmitters from the Adirondacks to the
Hudson Valley, creating a computerized radio system to address
persistent communications lapses among emergency response agencies.

The system will be designed to cover 95 percent of the state's land
area, linking emergency agencies from Niagara to New York City. A series
of radio towers, each designed to withstand hurricane-force winds and
ice storms, will dot the state, with the state calling for them to be
equipped with power generators and fuel tanks so that officials can
speak to one another during a power failure. State officials say that
with the system in place, police, fire and other agencies across the
state will use pooled radio frequencies, greatly improving coordination
at emergencies.

The administration refused to discuss the exact cost of the system, but
industry officials said it would be more than $1 billion. It would be
paid for by using a portion of the $1.20 monthly state surcharge now
assessed on cellular telephone service, most of which was originally
intended to pay for part of the state's 911 emergency calling system.

Though the plan has angered environmentalists, who are concerned about
the possibility of building tall radio towers in wilderness areas, state
officials say it is necessary to fix serious communications problems
that were highlighted by 9/11 and the blackout last August. Gov. George
E. Pataki has called the network one of his priorities.

After a frenzied lobbying effort in Albany by several communications
giants, the administration said Friday that the contract would be
awarded to M/A-Com, a subsidiary of Tyco International, the
Bermuda-based company. The company was represented on this contract by
former Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato, and its bid was chosen over a higher
one by Motorola, which already has contracts to build similar systems in
24 of the 26 states that want them.

M/A-Com's bid of more than $1 billion was less than half of Motorola's
bid, estimated to be a little over $3 billion, according to people
familiar with the bidding. It was unclear, given the stringent
requirements of New York's request for bids, how M/A-Com managed to come
in with a bid so much lower than its competitor's, and Motorola
officials said they may appeal the contract award.

While most of the other 26 states that are building similar radio
systems allowed outside companies to design them, New York State workers
drew up the network's design themselves, with a consultant's help. Some
industry analysts said the state's design spared no expense and was far
more costly than that of other states. Florida's system, for example,
cost about $350 million.
Democrats in the New York State Assembly questioned whether the price
tag would include the costs to city, town and county police and
emergency agencies. Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, a Democrat from
Westchester County, raised questions about the lobbying procedure.

"Senator D'Amato needs to disclose the nature of his conversations with
the governor's office and his compensation," said Mr. Brodsky, who added
that the Legislature would examine the contract and its financing.

James K. Kallstrom, the governor's senior adviser for counterterrorism,
said the system, which could take five years to construct, would help
protect citizens during cataclysms for decades to come.

"I think communications in any crisis always has been and always will be
on the first two or three things that are the reason for success or the
reason for failure, and I think we saw that on 9/11," Mr. Kallstrom
said.

"We need an up-to-date communications backbone for the state," he added.
"What's in the state now is a cobble of systems that are all decades
old."

Experts said that New York City fire and police commanders could tap
into the system, though it was not envisioned that the more than 35,000
uniformed police officers in the citywould use the system on a daily
basis

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/01/nyregion/01NETW.html
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