SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY : Anaheim’s Comarco Wins Pact to Provide Freeway Call Boxes

An Anaheim defense contractor has again come out on top in a competition to provide emergency call boxes on Southern California freeways.

Already, call boxes built by Comarco Inc. of Anaheim and maintained by GTE Cellular Communications Corp. are logging 25,000 calls a month from distressed motorists in Orange and San Diego counties. Now, San Bernardino and Riverside freeways will be equipped with the same system, which features Comarco’s solar-powered cellular telephones.

The San Bernardino/Riverside Service Authority for Freeway Emergencies will buy somewhere between 1,200 and 2,000 of the phones for $7 million to $12 million, depending on the final quantity, said Comarco Vice President Jim Bailey.

The price includes installation--expected to begin in April--and 10 years of maintenance. Call boxes will be installed every half-mile in urban areas and as much as two miles apart in remote desert regions. The system is scheduled to be operating by the end of the year.

Comarco, primarily a defense electronics company, has had financial difficulty in recent years but has succeeded in exploiting its solar-powered phone technology. About 3,000 of its call boxes--including 2,000 in Orange and San Diego counties--are now installed around the country, Bailey said.

And the firm could increase that number if it is successful in winning large bids now pending for San Francisco Bay Area freeways.