Nokia supplies microwave packet radio technology to US authorities

The agreement with NASPO ValuePoint comes at a time when state and local governments throughout the United States are either upgrading or planning to upgrade their networks to support services for government employees such as first responders, public safety officials and public works teams. NASPO ValuePoint is the purchasing cooperative of the National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO). NASPO is a non-profit association made up of the directors of the central purchasing offices in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories, and acts on behalf of its members to establish best practices for purchasing. The contract covers Nokia's 9500 Microwave Packet Radio (MPR) (supports both traditional TDM services and Ethernet-based services) as well as Nokia's Network Services Platform, the management system for the 9500 MPR. Bob Fennelly, head of Public Sector Business, North America at Nokia, said: "Our government customers are seeing the benefits of the shift toward a digital society, which offers a variety of improvements to the efficiency of their operational teams. We believe that our full-packet multi-service microwave platforms are a key element in building the networks that not only satisfy today's rigorous demands but also facilitate the evolution to future applications."