Harris, Motorola continue their land mobile radio battle
By
Nick Wakeman
In back-and-forth battle for an Army land mobile radio contract, Motorola currently has the upper hand, but Harris is fighting back.
I’m the first to admit I don’t know much about land mobile radios other than it is a market with just a couple major players and the competition is tight.
A case in point is the ongoing battle between Harris Corp. and Motorola Solutions for an Army contract to provide radios to the Detroit arsenal.
Harris won the contract the first time around with a $2.5 million bid, but Motorola filed a protest. Its bid was $1.9 million, but the company’s complaint had nothing to do with price.
Instead, Motorola objected to the fact that Harris was bidding a Motorola radio, a radio that Motorola said Harris didn’t have the right to sell.
The Government Accountability Office agreed and sent the contract back to the Army for a re-evaluation.
That was round 1. In round 2, Motorola won the contract, and now Harris is protesting. It filed its protest April 30, and GAO has until Aug. 8 to render a decision.
We’ve seen these kind of back-and-forth protest battles before, and usually the company that wins the contract after GAO recommends a re-evaluation prevails in any subsequent protest.
So, history isn’t in Harris’ favor, but you can’t blame them for continuing the fight.