States Cancel New Emergancy Communication Contracts

(MoneyWatch)  In the wake of 9/11 many states and localities moved to upgrade their first responder communications system. In the last few weeks, though, two states have canceled their contracts for a new system. Missouri ends a contract awarded in the last days of the previous administration with Motorola as the AP reports here. That contract was worth about $80 million and fell victim to the state re-looking all long term contracts. It also relied on Motorola paying costs up front with the state paying them back and there was concern that the company would not get financing due to the uncertain economic times. Network News writes about the decision of New York to cancel their new state wide system contract with M/A-COM due to performance issues with the system. This was a $2 billion contract. The state feels that the newly installed system failed to work properly and M/A-COM did not fix the issues found in testing. The company disputes this. The Department of Homeland Security has in the past given funds to localities who often used the funds for upgrading existing communications system like Genesee County, NY as reported in The Daily News.