Motorola Inc completed a major Eastern European expediton last week. Moscow was the last stop on a grand tour of the eastern bloc cities. The move was part pioneering and partly to gauge the interest of eastern European PTTs following last summer’s changes in CoCom restrictions. Motorola’s first Soviet distributor is New York-based RCI, which will open a showroom in Moscow this August. RCI has sole rights to distribute Motorola private mobile radios. Managing director David Weitzmann says the main customers will be industrial and municipal users. Julian Long of the European Cellular Infrastructure division says a major problem in the region is a shortage of lines – giving rise to waiting lists of up to 10 years for a domestic telephone. As a solution, Motorola is promoting the Wireless Local Loop in Eastern Europe. This device provides a radio link with a local analogue exchange – thus avoiding the need for a new wire connection.
