I have been following this a little bit and I have noticed a few major things that stink about the whole plan, 1st is the areas of 800 Mhz opperation the amount of towers that are required. New York is not flat. 2nd The likelyhood that most units on the system would have to have 2 radios in each car 1 800 Mhz radio for urban and 1 Vhf radio for rural areas, and not to leave out mobile repeaters(I guess the tax payers don't mind). I would guess that this whole system was geared for New York city and Long Island and not the rest of the state. I do monitor NYSPD and Niagara and Monroe counties from my QTH here in central Ontario. Here we are just finishing up the new province wide fleetnet Vhf digital system. that has all our provincial police =(state police) MTO= (D.O.T.) M.O.H.=(ambulance - paramedics - hospitals) MNR= (state parks), Corrections=(prisons),a few local police forces and fire departments, and soon Ontario hydro, With lots of room for more services to be added. The system works quite well with only ciminal investigations being encrypted because others don't have to be and it saves the tax payers lots of money. And the greatest part that it is a leased system from Bell using Motorola gear and Motorola dealers to service it. If there is still time I would write or call Albany to look into all options.