Agriculture buys $1 million worth of EF Johnson IP radios

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The sales, won by the company's EF Johnson division, represent a growing market for radios that are Internet-ready and meet emerging interoperability standards, said Jim Ridgell, vice president of EF Johnson's federal business unit.

EFJ Inc., Lincoln, Neb., has announced two government contract wins totaling more than $1 million for its digital land mobile radios.

The sales, which were won by the company's EF Johnson division, represent a growing market for radios that are Internet-ready and meet emerging interoperability standards, said Jim Ridgell, vice president of EF Johnson's federal business unit.

From Palm Beach County, Fla., the company won a contract worth $485,000 to provide land mobile radios for county service vehicles and public transportation buses. The company will provide its 9800 series Smartnet mobile radios as well as its 5300 series digital mobile radios. The 5300 series provides the capability of using Internet protocol to send and receive voice traffic.

From the Department of Agriculture, the company won a $580,000 contract to provide digital radios to the agency's Washington buildings. The company will provide digital mobile 5300 series radios, as well as voice-over-Internet protocol, or VOIP, repeaters.

According to Ridgell, the Agriculture Department plans to integrate its land mobile radio voice and data traffic into the agency's data network infrastructure.

The 5300 line of radios also comply with Project 25 standards, which have been established by an industry consortium to insure interoperability among different digital land mobile radios used in the public safety community. More information on Project 25 may be found at http://www.project25.org.

These are not the first Project 25-related government wins for the company. In January, the company announced it had won a $2 million subcontract from General Dynamics Corp., Falls Church, Va., to provide Series 5300 radios for use by an unidentified federal agency.