Utah’s emergency communications may be on the brink of collapse, lending urgency to a planned massive system upgrade. But the project is on hold while two industry giants brawl over the taxpayer-funded contract for new two-way radios and equipment.
Florida-based Harris Corp. won the contract with a bid of some $50 million — a price that the state says is $30 million below that of the losing bidder, Motorola.
But Motorola, which has supplied Utah’s radios and emergency technology for decades — since before the creation of the Utah Communications Authority (UCA) — is nowhere close to giving up the fight.