News to Note

State Office for Technology Nixes Statewide Wireless Network Contract

The New York State Chief Information Officer and Office for Technology (CIO/OFT) announced this week that the vendor awarded the $2 billion contract to build the Statewide Wireless Network (SWN) has failed to deliver a satisfactory and acceptable public safety communications network and is in default of the contract. As a result, the State has exercised its right to terminate the contract with MA/COM, Inc.

 

Operational testing conducted by CIO/OFT in November 2008 revealed M/A-COM failed to satisfactorily remediate fifteen of the nineteen deficiencies, rendering the network unacceptable for public safety use. Additionally, Federal Engineering, Inc., the independent validation and verification firm hired by the State to assure the network meets contractual requirements revealed similar unsatisfactory remediation results per the SWN contract. 

 

"We are extremely disappointed M/A-COM has failed to demonstrate the reliability of their OpenSky technology, especially its network and subscriber radios, which are the core of the system," said Dr. Melodie Mayberry-Stewart, Chief Information Officer and Director of the New York State Office for Technology. "Per the terms of the contract, we have given M/A-COM every opportunity to remediate existing deficiencies. However, the state's testing concluded M/A-COM is unable to deliver a system that meets the needs of New York State's first responders as stated in the contract." (Adriano Bongiorno)

Source: NYSAC Weekly Wire for the week ending January 16, 2009