CanesFan95
Active Member
If a county or city buys a Phase I or II P25 trunking system, will they be stuck always having to buy their radios from the same vendor? Or can they use a Harris P25 radio on a Motorola P25 system, or vice-versa?
The whole notion behind the APCO Project 25 was to have "open technology", which among other things, keeps radio costs competitive. They are pricey enough even at that.
The "trap" that some jurisdictions can fall in is if they use manufacturer propietary stuff, exactly like that Motorola ADP encryption mentioned previously. A system can be "encrypted" for $10 per radio, which could be lucrative. The downfall is that the jurisdiction has locked themselve into Motorola for replacement radios. That's because the other competitors can't do that ADP.
Well this sounds like a good thing. Maybe now there'll be some bid competition among vendors so municipalities don't have to pay out the nose when they need new radios and repeaters. Now the vendors can't say, oh, well, we don't support this and that anymore so you don't get stuck having to buy a new radio system every 10 years.
ADP is actually a horrible example…Tait offers it as well (specifically to get those Motorola sales).
So it's both Phase I and II that are not proprietary?