Many of you became aware during the statewide interoperable communication conference in August that the SAFE-T 800MHz system is approaching capacity limits in relation to the number of System/User ID's that remain available to current and future SAFE-T subscribers.
This letter serves as further clarification for this topic.
As of this writing, there are approximately 53,100 ID's configured in the system. Given our current growth, (approximately 2% per month) we envision reaching the system limits in July-August of 2010.
During the November meeting of the Integrated Public Safety Commission (IPSC) I was authorized to notify users of the remaining ID limits and to implement more stringent policy for issuing new ID's.
Effective with this letter, the Commission has authorized the following:
1. IPSC will no longer issue new ID's to standalone 800MHz systems and will instead encourage each of these entities to program national mutual aid channels, more commonly known as NPSPAC Call, TAC1, TAC2, TAC3 and TAC4. Further, standalone 800MHz system managers are asked to review the use of radios to determine continued need for SAFE-T user IDs.
2. The Network Operations Center (NOC) may require agencies to verify use of previously issued ID's/radios for which the NOC cannot confirm system affiliation within the past 60 calendar days.
3. Given the above requirement, the NOC will issue ID's to those agencies who have submitted email requests in the order received. No telephone requests will be honored. Field Coordinators will not be responsible for forwarding email requests, so please submit requests directly to the NOC.
4. IPSC staff will work with agencies who use wireline consoles to minimize the number of resources (ID's) required on each console position. IPSC will also work with agencies to understand better those ID's used in relation to talkgroups being recorded.
5. IPSC staff will research the number of unused analog talkgroups/ID's and will recover and convert as many as possible to digital ID's for future reissue.
The IPSC has further directed staff to pursue upgrade of SAFE-T to the next generation of Project 25 open system trunking radio systems.
To that end, IPSC has been researching options for P25 systems technology, some of which include migration of the current infrastructure. The infrastructure migration to P25 is, naturally, quite expensive. We continue to research available federal grant opportunities and will work with our partners at the Indiana Department of Homeland Security and other state agencies as funding for the upgrade is not currently identified.
NOTE: The Commission strongly recommends SAFE-T agencies contact IPSC staff before purchasing any new radios, as the availability of user/subscriber ID's may impact the quantity of new radios that can be configured in the system. Agencies may wish to consider future programming needs and P25 upgrade options, where necessary, for interoperable communications.
