Motorola Solutions and the National Association of Counties Announce County Government Wireless Broadband Award Winners

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. and WASHINGTON, Dec. 2, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- The Motorola Solutions business of Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) and the National Association of Counties (NACo) today announced that Catawba County, N.C. and Humboldt County, Calif. were selected to receive the 2010 County Government Wireless Broadband Award. Chosen from applications submitted from across the Unites States, these counties are recognized for unique proposals regarding the planned use of wireless broadband technology to enhance communications across county government and its positive impact on the local economy.

KEY FACTS

• At the July 2010 NACo Technology Summit, Motorola and NACo announced the County Government Wireless Broadband Award Program, established to share examples of efficiencies found by counties implementing wireless broadband technologies.
• The award program encourages adoption of broadband across the U.S. to help preserve and create jobs, spur investments in technology and provide long-term economic benefits.
• Project proposals recognized in 2010 demonstrate practical applications of wireless broadband technology by county government and will be implemented by the end of the first quarter of 2011.
• The award recipients will each receive a wireless broadband system from Motorola Solutions -- valued at more than $30,000 in equipment and services -- to help bring broadband connectivity to their community and meet project objectives.

WINNING PROPOSALS

• Catawba County: The Catawba County EcoComplex and Resource Recovery Facility is known for its waste recovery processes, including a Landfill Gas-to-Energy Facility. This award will enable Catawba County to provide wireless broadband communications to improve its landfill greenhouse gas emissions monitoring, enhance its overall gas collection system, offer real-time data to research partners and provide educational opportunities for schools and other organizations. Motorola Solutions' channel partner DoubleRadius will coordinate the technology deployment.
• Humboldt County: Humboldt's thirty-year-old telecommunications system is crucial to daily operations but inadequate to accommodate future expansion. The award will help provide broadband connectivity required to improve county operations and constituent services. The wireless network will enable county government to offer information online at its key government facilities, including public works, airport, roads division, county library, animal shelter, park maintenance and the Sheriff's office. Fisher Wireless Services, a Motorola Solutions channel partner, will deploy the wireless solution.

SUPPORTING QUOTES

Terry Bledsoe, chief information officer, Catawba County

"The award will help us not only improve Internet connectivity at the EcoComplex so business can be conducted more efficiently, but will also allow us to realize several initiatives that would otherwise be unfeasible. For example, we have plans to use the network to connect wireless monitoring devices so researchers and staff can monitor production levels. Other plans include an educational component with virtual classrooms for students from local schools or partner universities as well as use of coded signs that provide visitors with information on their mobile phones as they are touring the facilities."

Phillip Smith-Hanes, county administrative officer, Humboldt County

"As a rural county in California with extremely limited financial resources, we found ourselves with a communication system that was inadequate and not able to accommodate future expansion or technology advances.  With this grant from Motorola we will be able to support a wireless broadband link from the courthouse to county facilities including a sheriff substation and the main airport in Humboldt County.  This link will expand the ability of various county public safety and transportation system users to communicate between and within the area via internet and voice pathways."

Glen Whitley, president, National Association of Counties

"Counties are finding innovative ways to use technology to improve services and provide them more efficiently. By recognizing these efforts, we hope to encourage others to learn from these examples and look for ways to use broadband connectivity to stimulate economic development and provide community-wide connectivity."

Scott French, Motorola Sales and Services Inc. (MSSI) vice president, Wireless Mobility Sales, Motorola Solutions

"Real innovation takes place on the ground, close to the problems that need to be solved. As a technology leader and long-time partner of county government, we understand the unique challenges faced by local authorities and have the experience and expertise to make their projects a reality. Bringing wireless broadband connectivity to improve operations and the quality of life for local residents is one way we're helping make this happen."

SUPPORTING RESOURCES

Website: National Association of Counties

Portal: The Pulse: Wireless Networking

Blog: Wireless Insights

Twitter: www.twitter.com/motwireless

Motorola Solutions delivers seamless connectivity that puts real-time information in the hands of users, which gives customers the agility they need to grow their business or better serve and protect the public. Working seamlessly together with its world-class devices, our wireless network solutions include indoor wireless LAN, outdoor wireless mesh, point-to-multipoint, point-to-point networks and voice-over-WLAN solutions. Combined with powerful software tools for wireless network design, best-of-breed security, management and troubleshooting, Motorola Solution delivers trusted networking and access anywhere to organizations across the globe.

About National Association of Counties

The National Association of Counties (NACo) is the only national organization that represents county governments in the United States.  Founded in 1935, NACo provides essential services to the nation's 3,068 counties.  NACo advances issues with a unified voice before the federal government, improves the public's understanding of county government, assists counties in finding and sharing innovative solutions through education and research, and provides value-added services to save counties and taxpayers money.  For more information about NACo, visit www.naco.org.

About Motorola

Motorola is known around the world for innovation in communications and is focused on advancing the way the world connects. From broadband communications infrastructure, enterprise mobility and public safety solutions to mobile and wireline digital communication devices that provide compelling experiences, Motorola is leading the next wave of innovations that enable people, enterprises and governments to be more connected and more mobile. Motorola (NYSE: MOT) had sales of US $22 billion in 2009. For more information, please visit www.motorola.com.

MOTOROLA, MOTO, MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS and the Stylized M Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Motorola Trademark Holdings, LLC and are used under license. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.  © 2010 Motorola, Inc. All rights reserved. 

SOURCE Motorola, Inc.