Pressed by Motorola, Defense Ministry halts 5G tender process

• Author: Gad Perez
• Date: 21 April 2021
• Published date: 21 April 2021
• Publication title: Globes (Rishon LeZion, Israel)

The IDF Teleprocessing Corps had been working intensively for months on the RFI. Motorola, which provides the IDF's 4G network, brought heavy pressure to bear on the IDF to continue with it as a sole supplier. Motorola set out to recruit support for its proposal. It hosted senior Teleprocessing Corps officers at its offices and hired various consultants to use their connections with senior IDF personnel. One of them was Maj. Gen. (res.) Sami Turgeman, who held a meeting on the matter with Deputy Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir.

Motorola offered the IDF a sole supplier contract for NIS 1.5 billion over a long period. The Teleprocessing Corps examined the proposal, but sources inform "Globes" that the clear inclination of some of the professionals was to reject it and to embark on a tender on the basis of preliminary information gathering. This was because of the experience with Motorola in the 4G network, and recognition of the fact that the mobile telephony market, in which Motorola is no longer a leading player, has undergone substantial change with 5G.

In the 1990s, Motorola developed the IDF's first military wireless telephony system, "Mountain Rose". In 2014, the Ministry of Defense signed a sole supplier contract with Motorola for constructing a 4G network. This time, however, the ministry decided, rightly, that the network should be based on a civilian mobile system using the LTE fourth generation standard. Motorola was the integrator for the project and carried out the work on the encryption components. Motorola chose Ericsson to construct the core of the network, and Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR) to provide the radio communication medium for the military network. The Ministry of Defense thus allowed a sole supplier to carry out a project based on a civilian standard.

Two decades ago...