What are the details of the contract between Motorola and ICE?
August 26, 2019 3:24 PM Subscribe
What are the details of the contract that Motorola has with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)? Is it possible to view the contract? What is Motorola providing? When is the contract up?
Hi, I used to work for Motorola. I am guessing it is for dispatch and equipment, etc. You know those radios you see on policeman and fireman's shoulders? That are hooked to a device on their belts via a squiggly cord? And the radio at the receiving end of that, plus the software, etc.? It looks like that's what Motorola is now calling that division.
Motorola frequently would sell heavily to dispatch services, etc. They also go into countries with no infrastructure, and offer to set it up, in exchange for them buying dispatch equipment for their police and other services. After the Iran war was over, many cellphone companies were trying to get in there, as no one had been allowed to have cellphones there prior to that, and it was considered a goldmine for cellphone and other similar services. Too bad the rebels kept blowing things up, kinda hard to set up cellphone towers and infrastructure if it might get destroyed next week.
But yeah, that's what I assume it's for. ICE agents need to communicate with each other and their home base.
Every police officer and fireman I talked to, casually, told me they hated that equipment, BTW. It broke down frequently, and wasn't reliable. I think in the old days, Motorola equipment was pretty good, actually. They had the first satellite phone, I think it was a giant backpack thing, carried on the backs of soldiers during one of the wars. They made a ton of money selling such equipment to the military.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 4:47 PM on August 26, 2019 [2 favorites]
Motorola frequently would sell heavily to dispatch services, etc. They also go into countries with no infrastructure, and offer to set it up, in exchange for them buying dispatch equipment for their police and other services. After the Iran war was over, many cellphone companies were trying to get in there, as no one had been allowed to have cellphones there prior to that, and it was considered a goldmine for cellphone and other similar services. Too bad the rebels kept blowing things up, kinda hard to set up cellphone towers and infrastructure if it might get destroyed next week.
But yeah, that's what I assume it's for. ICE agents need to communicate with each other and their home base.
Every police officer and fireman I talked to, casually, told me they hated that equipment, BTW. It broke down frequently, and wasn't reliable. I think in the old days, Motorola equipment was pretty good, actually. They had the first satellite phone, I think it was a giant backpack thing, carried on the backs of soldiers during one of the wars. They made a ton of money selling such equipment to the military.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 4:47 PM on August 26, 2019 [2 favorites]
Sorry, I mean Iraq war, not Iran.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 4:53 PM on August 26, 2019
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 4:53 PM on August 26, 2019
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posted by jessamyn at 4:43 PM on August 26, 2019 [1 favorite]