Pa's experience
Ma/Com has won the contract to provide the radios for the system. Some would say one of the problems with that is Ma/Com uses a patented,proprietary system to transmit the voice portion of the signal. It's called Open Sky. Open Sky will NOT directly link PSP with other agencies using the national standard called Project 25. Project 25 is being used by the Philadelphia Police department and many other departments in the nation. Why? Because it's the national standard. To prove that please look at the following link. Go to page 3 and see the section under standards. It says "The FCC has chosen the P25 suite of standards for voice and low-moderate speed data interoperability in the new nationwide 700 MHz frequency band and the Integrated Wireless Network (IWN) of the U.S. Justice and Treasury Departments has chosen the Project 25 suite of standards for their new radio equipment. P25 has also been endorsed by the US Department of Defense for new LMR (Land Mobile Radio) radio systems."
http://www.safecomprogram.gov/NR/rd...ty_Communications_Interoperability_Grants.pdf
There is no doubt that Ma/Com does not have to use their proprietary, Open Sky format. They recently won a contract in Florida to use the national standard, Project 25. Please see the following link:
http://www.washingtontechnology.com/news/1_1/daily_news/27516-1.html
Also when it comes to replace worn out and/or broken Ma/Com radios the state can not put the project out to bid. Why? Because again Ma/Com's system is proprietary,patented. No one else can manufacturer the radios, they must come from Ma/Com. Officials in Nevada are being told exactly that:
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2005/Dec-21-Wed-2005/news/4900837.html
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Jan-17-Tue-2006/opinion/5389029.html
Another example of the importance of using the Project 25 national standard comes in a report issued about the Phoenix Arizona police department radio system. Please refer to page 3 in the following report. It says: " The City of Phoenix contracted with Motorola to build a Digital Trunked Radio System to provide communications for all city departments. The system utilizes the APCO Project 25 standard, a non-proprietary digital format. This open architecture allows the use of portable and mobile radios from multiple manufacturers.
http://phoenix.gov/FIRE/radioreport.pdf
As I mentioned earlier 800 MHz needs a lot of infrastructure to work. The Williamsport and Berwick Police departments in Pa stopped using 800 MHz and went back to their "old" system. That has not only happened locally, please take a look at the following link and the 7th paragraph:
http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/12511381.htm
In another area Ma/Com has been questioned about problems. Years ago it was the San Antonio, Texas Police department and more recently a police agency in Colorado. Please see the following links:
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/4450164/detail.html
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/4461074/detail.html
That agency finally gave up and switched systems.
http://www.aurorasentinel.com/main.asp?Search=1&ArticleID=10933&SectionID=11&S
ubSectionID=11&S=1
Another potential problem area is the following: As you know there are many areas of Pa has deep valleys and rugged terrain. To provide radio coverage in those areas Ma/Com will install so called "cell" sites, which are not for cell phones but to link those "dead spots" with the tower sites. The problem is those some of the cell sites are connected to the main system using phone lines. If bad weather brings down the phone lines--Troopers in those areas will NOT have radio communications. That can prove fatal if calling for backup and no one hears you.
Let me close with the following. 179 million dollars was originally set aside for the system. Cost overruns has increased the price to 280 million dollars. The system was supposed to be deployed in 1991. State officials now estimate full deployment in 2007.
I hope this answers some of your questions.
I never heard the end result of that on the board here that I was finding. I wonder if it was LVMPD had to award the bid or lose the Homeland grant.
