Motorola wins 10-year deal with Vic Country Fire Authority

Motorola Solutions has signed a deal with Victoria’s Country Fire Authority (CFA) to roll out 16,000 digital radios. 

The vendor and systems integrator will upgrade and support the radio equipment over a 10-year services contract as part of $138.8-million CFA upgrade. 

Specifically, Motorola will provide 6,000 new APX series P25 radio and 9,000 of its APX NEXT all-band smart radios. More radios are expected to be deployed in future.  

According to Motorola, the radios can switch from land mobile radio to broadband when users move outside of radio coverage. 

They also have smart mapping to pinpoint firefighters’ and vehicles’ locations in the field and voice control to manage radios by voice command, the vendor said. 

The program will replace CFA’s radios used in the field, on fire trucks and in fire stations. 

“APX radios enable the reliable communication that’s critical for fire and emergency agencies to collaborate, particularly in the face of more frequent and severe natural disasters and other complex events,” said Con Balaskas, managing director for Australia and New Zealand at Motorola Solutions. 

“Our APX NEXT radios bring additional capabilities that maximise the use of data in the field, delivering rich insights to further strengthen workflow efficiency and safety.” 

The new devices will be used on the Victorian government’s Regional Mobile Radio (RMR) and Metropolitan Mobile Radio (MMR) networks which provide radio communications across regional, rural and metropolitan Victoria. 

Motorola has also recently picked up major upgrades with Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main Roads in February and NSW’s State Emergency Services (SES) in December.