Start-up Rivada Mercury is one of the bidders for the contract to build a national US public safety network based on LTE, for the FirstNet group. Rivada leads a consortium made up of far larger partners including Ericsson, Nokia, Intel Security, Harris, Fujitsu Network Communications and Black & Veatch. There will also be carrier partners in addition to these co-founders, said Rivada co-CEO Declan Ganley, but these have not yet been named. Motorola Solutions, which dominates the public safety communications market in the US, is expected to mount a bid too. The winner will be announced in the fourth quarter. The network, in Band 14 of the 700 MHz spectrum, has had a tortured path to reality, but it will…