MARCS User Fee

[LubeckTech]

One of our clients is interested in putting about 25 public school busses on the system.
I called the Program Office and was told the user fee would be $5.00 per month.
This seems kind of low as we were expecting $10.00 or $20.00.
Has the user fee schedule changed or we given inaccurate information??

 

[wa8pyr]

One of our clients is interested in putting about 25 public school busses on the system.
I called the Program Office and was told the user fee would be $5.00 per month.
This seems kind of low as we were expecting $10.00 or $20.00.
Has the user fee schedule changed or we given inaccurate information??

If the MARCS program office says $5 that’s what it is. It will also be specified in your user agreement when you sign it.

 

[rcid1971]

One of our clients is interested in putting about 25 public school busses on the system.
I called the Program Office and was told the user fee would be $5.00 per month.
This seems kind of low as we were expecting $10.00 or $20.00.
Has the user fee schedule changed or we given inaccurate information??

What I advise my clients is, unless you absolutely need interoperability with an existing trunked system user, you’re better off alone.

Unless that district does a ridiculous amount of field trips, they’re better off with CAP+ or DMR.

You’re looking at $15-20k in user fees for the estimated life of the radios, then sticker shock if they suddenly require upgrades, or worse…arbitrarily determine to de-platform your agency.

 

[N8WCP]

If the MARCS program office says $5 that’s what it is. It will also be specified in your user agreement when you sign it.

I believe the current state budget provided funds to offset the published fee of $25 per month. That could disappear in the next state budget.

 

[wa8pyr]

You’re looking at $15-20k in user fees for the estimated life of the radios, then sticker shock if they suddenly require upgrades, or worse…arbitrarily determine to de-platform your agency.

True about upgrades, but major functional upgrades (like LLA) are unlikely to be needed by this time.

MARCS cannot arbitrarily “de-platform” a user unless it’s specifically stated in the user agreement that they can, and that’s usually only in cases of serious malfeasance or long term non-payment of user fees (and even that’s unlikely to get someone kicked off; as of 2023, there were quite a few agencies seriously in arrears who hadn’t been kicked off).

https://ohioauditor.gov/auditsearch/Reports/2023/Ohio_Department_of_Administrative_Services_MARCS_23_Performance-Franklin_FINAL.pdf

Being on MARCS for most small agencies is still cheaper than buying your own system. 25 radios at $5/month is $15,000 over 10 years, and a good quality repeater is at least that plus the cost of installation and annual maintenance. With MARCS you have better coverage along with interoperability, and the state handles all the heavy lifting.

Buying and installing your own system gets financially feasible only for large municipalities, or when the county bands together to purchase and install the system to spread out the cost.