Edward, I would refrain on making any assumptions about what VIPER is or isnt going to do regarding Phase 2 TDMA.
What I can tell you is that as of today, the VIPER system utilizes Quantar's for its base station backbone. This station is extremely rugged and well proven and afforded NC with an excellent transition opportunity to Phase 1 (FDMA) P25 at a very minimal cost since rather than unbolting everything, all that has been needed to make the stations be P25/P1 compliant is changing the control cards to operate on P25/P1. With that said, there are several noted shortcomings of the Quantar that need to be factored in, A) it is an 800 MHz only platform, meaning that in the event that the state (or any licensee in a similar situation) desires to use 700 MHz spectrum (had to be P25 to do that) then the Quantar doesnt provide that luxury, B) the Quantar is no longer orderable from Motorola so the ability to expand the number of operational stations at a particular site is limited and therefore moving forward with GTR8000 platform stations is required at least initially (see below), C) The Quantar will not do Phase 2 TDMA, D) One cannot mix and match Quantar and GTR stations as part of the same site and E) where one desires to utilize features available in releases 7.13 and newer (ISSI 8000 for example), Quantar stations dont support those features....
With all that said, NC has already begun to purchase GTR based station packages, ready to install when we migrate to P25. These packages WILL support Phase 2 TDMA at certain locations. The definition of "certain locations" will be determined by alot of factors, namely A) a need for additional voice channel capacity vs available spectrum and B) funding to justify a retrofit of the equipment. VIPER has within its annual recurring maintenance budget, funding identified for an organized changeout of Quantars, however one also has to balance the fact that once we begin to migrate sites to GTR based stations, we will have an abundance of perfectly serviceable Quantar's that can now be used to augment sites that may need additional channels but are NOT in immediate need of P25/P2 capabilites. One must also remember that many of the legacy SZ/OL radios will NOT do P25/P2 although they are all equipped to do P25/P1.
I personally believe that you will see VIPER begin to phase in P25 Phase 2 TDMA operations in high traffic areas within 12 months, 18 on the outside so if you are using this as a gauge as what to buy or when, I would think sooner rather than later....
M