Sandra Guy, Business Reporter, Chicago Sun-Times

Motorola Solutions said Monday it has signed a $22 million contract with electric utility Commonwealth Edison to set up a digital radio system to serve ComEd’s Northern Illinois service territory.

Schaumburg-based Motorola Solutions, the walkie-talkie and bar-code-scanning portion of the old Motorola Inc., said the ComEd radio system will provide clearer audio quality than the current system, enable ComEd field workers to program their radios over the air and enable real-time voice dispatch to allow quicker response to power outages. ComEd serves 3.8 million people in Northern Illinois.

Motorola has provided operational support to ComEd for more than 20 years, the company said.

Though Motorola’s smartphone company, Motorola Mobility, has received attention for its planned $12.5 billion takeover by Google, industry experts say Motorola Solutions stands to grow on its own by benefiting from city, state and other government moves to upgrade their public-safety communications systems to digital from analog and from continuing moves by retailers, consumer goods makers and other companies to use radio-frequency identification systems to move products more efficiently through their inventory systems.

Motorola Solutions also is providing next-generation police car systems that let officers push a button on the steering wheel to talk to dispatchers, control vehicle equipment with voice commands and see surveillance video in real time on a dashboard computer screen.

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