Subject:	Ericsson Systems: Extensively Used And Massively Non-compliant
Date:	1999/07/23
Author:	Paul Milne <fedinfo@halifax.com>
	Posting History

7/23/99 -- 12:16 AM Court fight may loom over $18 million radio system By By DAVID PEDREIRA of The Tampa Tribune TAMPA - An $18 million radio system used by the sheriff's office continues to have problems.     Fed up with a police radio system that has never lived up to its billing, Hillsborough commissioners refused Thursday to pay an extra $521,000 to make sure it will work in 2000.   Their decision could lead to a legal battle between the county and Ericsson Private Radio Systems, which installed the $18 million, 800 megahertz system for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office in 1994.   ``We put an extreme amount of money into this system, and it still doesn't work five years later,'' said Commissioner Jim Norman. ``I don't think we should pay a dime for Y2K compliance. It should be delivered to our doorstep.''   ====== This is a similar sytem to the Ericsson system used by Monkey County, Maryland. Ericsson is located a few miles from my home, in Lynchburg VA where they have a manufacturing facility.  One of the guys i work with, who has a real 'big brain' told me Y2K was no problem because his Uncle works there and told him so.   Ericsson radio systems are a major league Y2k screw up.  Every day I read more and more about their systems failing miserable AFTER they told their customers that the were compliant.   http://www.tampatrib.com/sections/story3mt.htm Paul Milne

-- a (a@a.a), July 24, 1999

Answers

Add MOTOROLA to the list of suppliers who have recently STIFFED small towns and cities over 911 system noncompliance.

-- K. Stevens (kstevens@It's ALL going away in January.com), July 24, 1999.

Okay Paul (or a), I am interested in seeing links to the stories attesting to the Ericsson systems failing miserably...I am employed as a wireless systems engineer for said company and would like to check out your failure claims. Should not be too difficult for you to provide a couple of links since you every day you read more and more about their systems failing miserably. Additionally, when you state "Ericsson radio systems are major league Y2k screw-ups" is the statement only referring to land-mobile or our you including cellular and PCS?

-- william holst (w_holst@hotmail.com), July 24, 1999.

Paul,

Let's add some icing to that Ericcson cake. Just suppose they decide they're gonna replace all their customer's equipment for free, but only for bonafide failures discovered AFTER 01/01/2000. I know, not a very good coporate policy but just for argument.

So guess what? I know that some of the key component placement equipment used in their and all the other major electronics manufactiring firms is not compliant as delivered. You name them, everyone's assembly lines has the same risks of failure. Seems that everybody depends on one manufacturer for high-precision chip placement.

Yep, radios systems, cellphones, phone switching systems, military electronics, consumer electronics, automotive electronics, computers large and small and even some of the chips that go inside are all built using that firm's products. And unless there's a real rush to upgrade those machines between now and year's end there's going to be a lot of stopped production after New Year's, regardless of any good fortune in keeping the grid up.

Single-point-of-failure anyone?

-- justaninsideobserver (watching-the-fun@whatamess.com), July 24, 1999.