MotoTRBO is not just designed for business/industrial. Motorola is not saying that it is only for business use. They are saying that it is a solution for some public safety agencies. I spent almost 3 hours today with 2 Motorola people (direct side, not dealers) and they said this themselves.
MotoTRBO works much better than any analog radio system that I've seen anywhere, with excellent dependability. The radio equipment itself meets (or exceeds) the same mil-specs that other Motorola (and other brand) analog-only radios meet. A MotoTRBO radio is just as good for 'mission critical' applications as an HT1250, which has been used by many public safety agencies with excellent results. To say that MotoTRBO is 'bad' for public safety, because it doesn't do everything that P25 does, is like saying that all of the thousands of existing conventional analog equipment and systems, all over the world, are 'bad' for public safety - the same technology that has been sold for public safety and been used for public safety, for many years.
As to MotoTRBO and APCO 16, I haven't looked at the specific 'feature set' of APCO 16 to see if MotoTRBO meets those 'specs' or not. But, I don't think that the existing analog 'public safety' systems meet APCO 16 either and I don't see anyone 'badmouthing' analog because of this.
As to MotoTRBO systems being implemented for public safety - they already have been - numerous systems around the country. And so far, the feedback from users is that they work very well - 100% satisfaction from the ones that I've personally spoken with. On the other hand, I just recently spoke with a user (911 director) of a very large P25 system, and she told me that they're almost ready to go back to analog, because they're so unhappy with how the P25 system works (or more correctly, does not work).
And I do not work for Motorola. I am a dealer. And I'm a very experienced tech - 32 years working with commercial 2-way radio, 21 years computer programming, hardware and software design (customers such as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Puma County Arizona, Washington Department of Transportation, Hyundai, and many smaller public safety agencies), beta testing new products for a number of communications manufacturers since the early 1990's, and I hold an ETA Master Technician Certification (less than 270 Master-Certified Technicians, worldwide, out of over 100,000 total ETA-certified techs). I look at things first from a 'technical' standpoint, and second from a 'sales' standpoint (if at all).
P25 (and specifically, trunking) is ideal for many agencies. If everyone in the country could use P25 trunking, then that would be ideal. But there just isn't enough money for that to happen - at least not for quite a while. I agree that money should NOT be involved in public safety agencies choosing what technology to use. But, the 'fact of life' is that it is involved. We have a customer who couldn't afford to spend $500 to replace an old wide-band mobile radio that definitely should be replaced. Instead, they said to see what we could to to fix it. This is a sheriff's department. But they're in a VERY 'poor' county and they just don't have the money that they need for better communications. They have 2 repeaters, and one has been down for almost 1 year and they don't have the money to have it fixed. And counties like this can't get anywhere near enough grant money, in most cases, to implement the infrastructure necessary for P25 trunking. It's a very bad situation for these counties. Something like MotoTRBO, or NEXEDEGE, is a major step 'up' for any county that can't come up with the money for P25 trunking, to have better communications.
You talk about someone losing their lives due to a MotoTRBO system - "inadequate equipment", you call it. What about the 'crummy' analog systems that many of these agencies are currently using? Some of these officers are depending upon old, poorly operating, analog systems that just aren't 'good enough' for the situations that they face. And the costs to make these systems even begin to work better, will cost as much as new MotoTRBO or NEXEDGE systems. Personally, I don't understand it when someone insists that such agencies should keep using their analog systems, because they can't afford P25 systems. And that's exactly what's happening when someone says that those agencies shouldn't use "crap like MotoTRBO". If they flat out don't have the money for P25 systems that would fix their communictions problems, then what are they supposed to do if they don't consider something like MotoTRBO or NEXEDGE? The only answer is that they keep using their analog systems. And that is definitely putting officers in 'harms way', in many cases.
By the way, the P25 conventional 'spec' does not provide for wide-area roaming, which many large rural counties need. Simulcast can work, but it's expensive and doesn't work as well as roaming (assuming enough frequencies are available for such a system). Only P25 trunking (and MotoTRBO and NEXEDGE) offer this capability. So P25 conventional is not a 'good' solution for many large rural public safety agencies.
John Rayfield, Jr. - CETma
