The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) exercised a US$46 million (£36 million) contract option with L3Harris Technologies to provide robotic systems to support domestic explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) missions. This award is an option to the $70 million (£55 million) contract the MOD awarded L3Harris in 2017 for T7 robotic systems for the military’s overseas EOD missions.

The increasing number of ransomware attacks highlights the critical importance of making cyber preparedness a priority and taking necessary steps to secure networks against adversaries, several associations said.

AT&T selected Docomo Pacific to help support the deployment of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) in Guam and the commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Docomo Pacific is owned by NTT Docomo, a Japanese-owned telecommunications carrier.

The federal Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) is projected to open in the coming weeks, according to a blog from BK Technologies. The goal of this grant is to provide firefighters and first responders with updated equipment, gear, radios, training and emergency vehicles to better protect themselves and the community.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) selected AT&T for a potential $984 million 15-year contract. Through this award, the DOJ will transition to a next-generation communications platform supporting more than 120,000 employees across more than 2,100 locations.

The fourth annual Innovation for Crisis Management (I4CM) event, an outcome of the DRIVER+ project, was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, 12 – 13 June with more than 120 participants from 27 different countries. Volunteer management in a crisis situation was a theme, with special attention paid to issues around organized volunteers and psychosocial support to volunteers.

At the final review of the Celtic-Plus project RelCOvAir – Reliable Industrial Communication Over the Air, the project team, led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS), presented a new test system for industrial wireless communications. The developed test system consists of a software-based and a hardware-based test bed solution.

Polaris Networks, a provider of wireless test and measurement products, conducted a Roadshow cum Training Workshop with i2i Systems, a Turkey-based system integrator.

The CBRS Alliance and the Wireless Innovation Forum (WInnForum) jointly announced the approval by the WInnForum to support the 5G New Radio (NR) air interface in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band. This approval is a key step in providing a solid foundation for 5G NR in the 3.5 GHz band and sets the stage for the first mid-band 5G deployments in the U.S.

AT&T Communications and Microsoft announced an extensive, multiyear alliance where the two companies will apply technologies, including cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G, to improve how people live and work today and in the future. Microsoft will be the preferred cloud provider for non-network applications, as part of AT&T's broader public-cloud-first strategy and will support AT&T as it consolidates its data center infrastructure and operations.