Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Silencing FDNY Radios Problematic model to be discontinued

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 02:27:33 -0500

Silencing FDNY Radios Problematic model to be discontinued

By Graham Rayman and William Murphy
STAFF WRITERS

February 12, 2004

The manufacturer of a troubled Fire Department radio system
that went into use in 2001 plans to discontinue the model, the
company said yesterday.

The XTS3500 system and its walkie-talkies, made by Motorola,
had problems almost immediately when they were put into
operation March 13, 2001, and they were pulled out of service
a week later.

On March 19, a Queens firefighter had run out of air at a house fire. His
radio calls for help were not heard by nearby firefighters, but were heard
clearly by firefighters several blocks away. The firefighter was rescued
when an officer at the scene realized he was missing.

When the XTS3500 system was yanked two days later, the old Sabre system,
also made by Motorola, was reactivated. After Motorola made changes to the
XTS3500 system, it was reinstated in February 2002.

Motorola now plans to discontinue the XTS3500 line and replace it with the
XTS5000 line, according to an internal company memo obtained by Newsday.

The memo questioned whether the company had sold the department "the wrong
[radio] platform," whether the benefits of the XTS3500 had been
"misstate[d]" and said, "Did we ignore these [concerns] to keep a $10+M [$10
million-plus] order?"

Company spokeswoman Pat Sturmon said yesterday that while the XTS3500 would
be phased out, the company would continue to provide spare parts and
"support our product."

She described the memo as "an internal document not meant to be discussed
publicly." She said it had been written by the leader of a sales team and
was meant to foster internal discussion on how best to market Motorola
products.

The memo also raised concerns about "poor publicity depending on our
approach to migration" - meaning the sales effort to get customers to
abandon the older model and buy the newer model.

The Fire Department's radio capabilities on Sept. 11, 2001 - when the Sabres
were back in use - will be the subject of a federal safety and technology
hearing today in Manhattan.

One witness is expected to be retired California businessman and filmmaker
William Bowen, who is working on a book about radio failures that day.

In an interview yesterday, he noted that the Fire Department has already
conceded that it did not field-test the new radio system, which cost more
than $13 million, before putting it into operation.

"They took these radios and made 11,000 firefighters into guinea pigs,"
Bowen said.

Alan Hevesi, the city comptroller at the time of the purchase, issued a
report concluding that the Fire Department had used improper bidding
procedures in awarding the contract to Motorola.
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/manhattan/nyc-nynist123667205feb12.story

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