MOTOTRBO Digital Two-Way Radios

DMR stands for Digital Mobile Radio — an open standard created by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), first ratified in 2005, that defines how digital two-way radios communicate. Because it’s an open standard rather than a proprietary one, equipment from different manufacturers can work together on the same network for the functions the standard covers. DMR operates in the VHF and UHF bands, and MOTOTRBO uses two-slot TDMA, which divides a single 12.5 kHz channel into two independent time slots — so one frequency carries two conversations, or voice and data at the same time.

Yes. MOTOTRBO portables and mobiles operate in both analog and digital modes, so a radio can be programmed with analog channels that talk to your existing fleet alongside digital channels for the radios you’ve already migrated, and repeaters can run mixed mode as well. That means you can replace radios in phases instead of swapping everything at once. The analog and digital radios do need to be on matching frequencies and programmed to work together — that setup is part of what we handle.

No. MOTOTRBO runs on your own licensed VHF or UHF spectrum and your own repeater, so coverage holds in stairwells, basements, warehouses and across campuses where cell service is weak — and during emergencies when cellular networks get congested. Operating on licensed spectrum does require an FCC license, which we take care of. If you also need to reach staff beyond your radio footprint, WAVE PTX adds push-to-talk over cellular and Wi-Fi and can share talkgroups with your MOTOTRBO system.

Yes. Alongside voice, MOTOTRBO carries text messaging, GPS location and telemetry over the same radio channel — no cellular data plan required. Motorola’s application developer ecosystem adds options like centralized dispatch, work-order ticketing and lone-worker monitoring, and radios can connect to sensors and to video security and access control systems so staff receive alerts directly on the device.