Following a long and disputed procurement process for the completion of a statewide law enforcement radio system, the State of Florida Department of Management Services (DMS) today contracted with Com-Net Ericsson Critical Radio Systems, Inc.

Today's contract means that Phases I and II of the statewide system -- successfully installed and recently upgraded by Motorola -- will be completely dismantled and rebuilt. The Florida DMS contract award to Com-Net also covers the completion of Phases III, IV, and V. In response to the Florida DMS contract award to Com-Net Ericsson, Motorola's position is as follows:

We are disappointed that the State of Florida has chosen to sign a contract with Com-Net, the terms and services of which indicate the contract is not in the best interests of Florida, its residents and its visitors. The timing of today's contract signing is equally surprising and inappropriate, since there are currently several legal actions pending that seriously challenge the legal process followed by DMS in the procurement process, including alleged violations of the Florida Sunshine Law.

The statewide law enforcement radio system provides a critical communication link for public safety officers in state organizations such as the Florida Highway Patrol, Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and others. Once completed, the system is designed to allow officers to communicate instantly and seamlessly across the entire state. As well, the system provides a direct communication link between state law enforcement and city and county law enforcement agencies. The system's design, reliability and ease of use are critical in officer arrest situations and directly affect the safety and well being of the public.

Although the State had a well-defined evaluation process in place to safeguard those functions, the appointed evaluation committee made serious deviations from that specified process. These inappropriate actions resulted in a contract that does not meet many RFP specifications and eliminates many user functions that are critical to the safety of Florida's law enforcement community.

Contrary to the contract procurement process that stated all proposals must be in "compliance with the specifications and requirements provided in the RFP," Florida DMS awarded the contract to a company that:

• Did not and could not "provide a system demonstration on an existing law enforcement land mobile radio system of like kind to that which is being proposed" (RFP Section 5.3.22.2).

• Provides for a lower number of radio channels than currently exists in Phases I and II, as opposed to the RFP requirement (Section 5.3.27) that the current number of channels or communications paths be maintained. The lower number of channels will result in less system capacity, which could be especially critical in the Miami area, which is already experiencing a need for additional channels.

• Has no contract provisions for "Overall System Uptime" -- the time during which the system is fully operational -- although the specifications in the RFP call for a system uptime of 99.5 percent (Section 5.3.24.1) and the Motorola system in Phases I and II has had an uptime or reliability exceeding that. Requirements for subsystem uptimes and system controller uptime (Sections 5.3.24.2 and 5.3.24.4, respectively) were also reduced or eliminated completely. This could lead to a significant reduction in system performance.

• Presented a system design that must utilize FCC frequencies not yet approved or secured, in violation of the requirement that "any frequencies used by the design must be currently licensable within existing FCC rules without rule waivers" (Section 5.3.2.6.2).

• Cannot replace hand-held control heads for use with mobile radios currently used by more than 700 FDLE officers to avoid detection in undercover assignments. Section 2 of the RFP requires "no loss of features" and Section 5.3.10.3 requires that the Contractor shall provide such control heads.

• Offers greatly lowered construction and performance bonds, which are supposed to protect the State in case of contractor default. The bonds were reduced from "the amount of the contract" (Section 4.23) -- more than $350 million -- to $36 million for construction, and approximately $14 to $15 million for performance. The contract also holds the state liable for the contractor's outstanding secured debt should the state take control of the project under default. Because the scope of work includes proprietary technology provided only by Com-Net, this bond issue represents extraordinary financial risk to the state.

In addition to the many deviations from state requirements, the contract also:

• Includes just 134 tower sites, 41 fewer than the State of Florida's system design calls for to achieve required 98 percent radio coverage. The proposed Motorola design offered the State 198 sites.

• Calls for a 36-month construction schedule, as opposed to the 18-month schedule proposed by Motorola.

• Includes mobile and portable radios costing twice as much as the current radios used in Phases I and II, and does not provide replacement radios for all agencies or the state universities on the system. In addition, the Motorola radios used by the state of Florida today are manufactured in Florida by Florida workers. That will change.

On several occasions, Motorola told the state that Florida did not get the best value for the public-safety community. In a last-minute, arbitrary decision, the state elected to eliminate Motorola's proposal for sharing revenue on the statewide radio communications towers, even though the state specifically instructed Motorola to provide such a proposal. Had even a third of the proposed revenue been considered, Motorola would have been the low bidder as well as providing a more robust system that met all of the State's technical requirements.

Equally important, the State's action today demonstrates it has chosen to abandon its promise to state, county and city public safety agencies to build a system that meets the Project 25 North American standard. Phases I and II were designed and constructed to meet that standard. This universal standard was chosen and championed by Florida to provide communications compatibility between hundreds of governmental law organizations. And based on that position, dozens of city, county and state law enforcement agencies have installed like systems at their own cost. The public need for this communication compatibility has been demonstrated and proven in natural disasters such as Hurricane Georges and the East Coast wildfires. Under the terms of the contract announced today, Phases I and II equipment will be replaced with a different system technology that no longer provides communications compatibility with those agencies' existing systems.

Motorola's proposal would have offered the lowest price while still providing the state with more communications towers for enhanced coverage, a system meeting the requirements of the RFP -- which was written by the system users -- and completion within 18 months, as opposed to the 36-month timeline in the Com-Net contract. And, the state of Florida would not have to "throw away" a highly sophisticated $60 million communications system and get only a $2 million in salvage value -- or three cents on the dollar.

Motorola plans to continue its legal action against the State of Florida Department of Management Services. Motorola contends that there were serious flaws in the procurement process -- including several deviations from stringent technical requirements mandated under the original Request for Proposal -- as well as serious violations of the Florida Sunshine Law.

Motorola has a nearly 30-year history in Florida and employs some 6,800 workers in southern Florida, manufacturing public-safety radios in Plantation. The company completed installation of the first two phases of the $60 million statewide radio communications system in 1998. The system has received praise from its users and has demonstrated its cross-user operational abilities with different law enforcement agencies throughout their joint emergency efforts during the East coast wildfires and Hurricane Georges.

Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) is a global leader in providing integrated communications solutions and embedded electronic solutions. Sales in 1999 were $33.1 billion. For more information, please visit the Motorola web site at http://www.motorola.com/ .

SOURCE Motorola

CONTACT: Pat Sturmon of Motorola, 847-576-6612, or pager, 888-468-1447; or Joe Curley of Curley & Pynn, 407-423-8006, or cellular, 407-468-4290, for Motorola