In the mid-1930s, police departments began using wireless radio systems to enable immediate communication between headquarters and patrolling officers. We began building products to assist law enforcement’s ability to execute their job. There are over 50,000 first responder agencies consisting of municipal police, county sheriffs, emergency, fire and campus police.

Many federal, state and local agencies operate wireless radio equipment that complies with specifications established by the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials International, Inc., or APCO. APCO is the world's largest not-for-profit professional organization dedicated to the enhancement of public safety communications. APCO has more than 16,000 members around the world, and it serves the people who manage, operate, maintain, and supply the communications systems used to safeguard the lives and property of citizens.

In 1995, APCO promulgated a new recommended wireless communications standard known as Project 25. Project 25 specifies features and signaling for narrow band digital voice and data with conventional and trunking modes of operation. The Telecommunications Industry Association, or TIA, participated in the development of these standards, following an industry-sanctioned accredited process.

The Project 25 standard has been adopted by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, or NTIA. The NTIA controls wireless radio specifications for the federal government and has specified a conversion to narrow band by January 1, 2008. Several U.S. government agencies, including the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Interior, Justice and Treasury, have specified a Project 25 requirement for procurements of new wireless radio equipment.

We leverage our engineering and technical expertise to address the specific needs of our customers and developments in our market. We are an industry standards leader within both APCO and TIA, providing significant support by chairing committees and working groups formulating the standards. Our technical expertise has enabled us to improve our core technologies and incorporate them into our new products more quickly and with relatively lower development costs due to our ability to build these platforms based on software defined radios.

We have been and continue to be a supporter of APCO initiatives, including being one of the first providers of Project 25 standard equipment for public safety, to create interoperable, bandwidth efficient wireless technology that enables our homeland security first responders to communicate as effectively and efficiently as is needed to do their job.