Who needs French ciphered communication system?

October marked half a year since the Cabinet’s Resolution On Establishing a National Confidential Mobile Radio Communication System. An SBU source (the Ukrainian secret police being the general customer of the system) assured The Day that nothing has been done to implement the resolution as everybody is waiting for the election results.

In this case, however, the point in question is perhaps not the low level of executive discipline, something we have long grown accustomed to. The absurdity of the Cabinet resolution is most likely explained by either the election campaign or someone’s personal interests. It is so apparent that opposition was sure to arise, and it did. The resolution says such mobile confidential government communication systems must be installed at all military and security ministries and agencies, but only on the basis of equipment supplied by the French firm Matra Nortel Communications. It is interesting to note that the Ukrainian company Ukrspetseksport is to be the sole recipient of the French credit line (700 million francs loaned for a term of seven years), that very company which supplies Ukrainian armaments abroad.

As for SBU assurances, one ought to treat them with a distinct measure of skepticism. First, because a contract signed August 13, 1999, between Ukrspetseksport and Matra, took effect October 13. Second, another informed source at the US Embassy insists the Americans are alarmed by events in that department. September 28, UNIAN reported that the US Charge d’affaires David Gus forwarded a letter to Minister Anatoly Tolstoukhov, expressing the US government’s concern about the said Cabinet resolution. The letter notes, in part, that this resolution is an anticompetitive decision by the Ukrainian government, threatening subsequent investment in Ukraine by US companies. The US side considers that purchasing Matra’s two-way communication system will damage Ukraine’s reputation in the eyes of potential investors. By way of example, Mr. Gus recalls the situation with Motorola when it tried to establish a joint venture with Kharkiv’s Komunar Works. The project was supported by the US and Ukrainian governments. The Defense Department was prepared to offer financial support and an appropriate statement was issued. But after the Cabinet resolution Motorola reconsidered and canceled the project. This course of events, Mr. Gus wrote in conclusion, is the logical result of Ukraine’s discriminatory and opaque policy.

One should hand it to the US government; it has been insistently and rather rigidly defending its national interests all over the world. Regrettably, its Ukrainian counterpart does not do so even at home, often abiding by any reasoning other than national interests. Oleksandr Husiatnyk, head of the foreign contacts department at Komunar, says: “Our attitude to the Cabinet resolution is utterly negative. If other companies could take part in the bidding — for example, Erikson or Motorola — we would call this the right approach. But granting exclusive rights to a French company with an old protocol (i.e., standard —Ed.) which not practically recognized anywhere in the world, can only cause a negative response on our part.”

The Day was explained by a Motorola- affiliated source that Matra’s TETRAPOL digital trunking radio communication standard has been in use for twelve years. It is closed to other manufacturers and is recognized only in France. For example, Motorola’s analogous standard was developed less than two years ago and is open to all and Nokia, Motorola’s successful Finnish rival, is using it.

The said source believes that a tender involving all firms operating open standards would best serve Ukraine’s interests. In that case the successful bidder would be determined using quality and cost criteria. In addition, other, more competitive producers would be in a position to participate in the development and improvement of a ciphered radio communication system. As it is, the Cabinet resolution bans Ukrainian authorities, military units, etc., to use budget funds (all they have —Ed.) “to unfold other systems to provide confidential mobile communication.”

In the meantime, word has it that the French government is discarding TETRAPOL in its military and security ministries and agencies, switching to the Motorola standard. Does this mean that Ukraine is about to be used as a drain down which an obsolete technology will go, along with expensive equipment? Does the Cabinet know this? Perhaps it does, as evidenced by the fact that certain military and security officials opposed the resolution when discussing and signing it. They may have proposed a tender, the way it is practiced all over the world. But someone in high — or even higher — office must have put his foot down. This cannot but bring to mind the word lobbying. Could it be that a ranking officeholder had to act that way, actually against the national interest, because he needed hard cash badly, for example to finance the election campaign? If so, it would not matter that that a Motorola radio station that could be used in Ukraine’s government communication service costs $350 compared to Matra’s $2,500.