Ontario to replace Public Safety Radio Network

[vabiro]

This press release just came out from the provincial government:

https://news.ontario.ca/mcscs/en/2018/10/ontarios-public-safety-radio-network.html

News Release
Ontario's Government for the People Taking Immediate Action to Replace the Province's Crumbling Public Safety Radio Network
Massive provincewide modernization project will build new state-of-the-art infrastructure

October 11, 2018 3:00 P.M.Office of the Premier

ALLISTON — Ontario's Government for the People is taking immediate action to keep Ontarians safe and protect communities by replacing the province's crumbling Public Safety Radio Network, which frontline and emergency responders rely on during emergencies.

"This modernization project is long overdue," said Premier Ford. "Our frontline and emergency responders need to have reliable, modern tools and resources in place to do their jobs and we are going to make sure this life-saving system gets underway."

 

[VA3ADP]

Very interesting! I wonder who the vendor will be. Hopefully its not all ENC!

 

[VA3ADP]

"The current network does not provide capabilities expected in a modern public safety radio network, including encryption. Critical information on police activity and personal health information is broadcast over radio unencrypted". Well we already know OPP and EMS will be encrypted. ;(

 

[mmisk]

"Crumbling Public Safety Radio Network" ?? Give me a break. How old is fleetnet?

 

[VA3ADP]

There are so many lies in that article what an idioit ford is.

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[mciupa]

Just a reminder of the Forum Rules of the RadioReference website:

Copy/Pasting Content From Other Websites

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Please remember for future reference.

 

[bigcam406]

I didnt think Fleetnet was that old. I guess we can only wait and see in a few years what transpires. Enjoy it while we can, folks!

 

[VA3ADP]

I really hope EMS doesnt go the E route. I can understand the hospital patches and all that but based on what I've seen on other province wide systems, wouldn't it be up to the department/angency whether to encrypt or not.

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[Muxlow]

Daily service outages? I think they have more issues with the junk tait batteries and loosing cell signal on their computers/gps then issues with the fleetnet towers

But hey, ditch the spectra and mcs2000's for something little nicer. Why not!

 

[Jammin_Jay]

I dont think the Ottawa Tornadoes was the straw the broke the camels back. Even if it was digital and encrypted, the towers had no power and some damage. This was in the works even before Ford took office. They just publicize it for a reason of cause and justification that seems believable.
i am curious if channels like OFM and OPC will still be in the clear and analog, no encryption.
With the Radio system as p25, there has to be that interoperability with DMR and NXDN systems among local police stations.
Still have 3+ years of listening.

 

[mrweather]

Does that mean cheap surplus Astro Spectras will coming soon?

Fleetbonk has got to be 15 years old. I bought my first digital scanner around 2004/5 (BC796D) solely to listen to OPP.

I fully expect all OPP will be ENC on the new system.

 

[Jay911]

I have no doubts that the Ontario system (or group of four systems, really) is badly out of date. I have seen similar-aged systems which M has said they're not going to support any longer because of their age. Guys, it's a Smartzone system. It's 1990s technology. Even if it is doing what other SZ systems are doing - and actually an ASTRO (P25) system at its core, with all its RF sites masquerading as 3600 SZ sites - the hardware is just so old that supporting it is going to be an almost vertical climb.

I thought they had announced earlier in the year that it would be upgraded to a modern P25 system anyway. The press release implies that six vendors are going to be involved. Have all the involved parties been named as of yet? Has the system architecture been finalized?

If the build-out of AFRRCS here in Alberta is a yardstick to measure by, expect to have your new system online closer to 2030 than 2020. But I guess we'll see.

 

[FoeHammer]

Does that mean cheap surplus Astro Spectras will coming soon?

Fleetbonk has got to be 15 years old. I bought my first digital scanner around 2004/5 (BC796D) solely to listen to OPP.

I fully expect all OPP will be ENC on the new system.

I would expect everything that can be encrypted will be ,..It's game over for scanners & public safety

 

[Forts]

It's a no-brainer that OPP will be fully encrypted, and from what I've heard EMS will be too. Beyond that it's anyones guess. And Fleetnet went into service around what.... 2002 or so? So it's definitely due for an upgrade. It'll also be interesting to see if it stays VHF... I've heard rumblings that it might be 700mhz.

 

[Forts]

Fully operational by 2023.... So I'm sure the APX radios that Motorola will be selling them between now and then will be end of life and already needing replacement

 

[VA3ADP]

Do we know for a fact EMS will be ENC?

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[Forts]

100% fact? I don't believe anything is known at this point. It's just common sense that OPP will be and I've heard from multiple sources that EMS will be as well. I think that's about as factual as we can get until the government starts issuing tenders for the system.

 

[VA3ADP]

I was under the impression that it would be up to the EMS services if they wanted to encrypt or not

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[Jay911]

If there are folks from the Maritimes watching this, they might be able to chime in about the system that "just" (over the past few years) went live in that region. A look at that system indicates that there is a healthy amount of encryption (but not total) on the police side, and about equal for EMS/EHS if not a little less, and Fire is just about 100% in the clear. At least, as far as the RRDB goes (and of course it depends on people keeping it updated).

That is similar to my experiences out west here in Alberta. 90% or greater of the policing on our new system is encrypted, and almost all EMS except some mutual aid/shared talkgroups are also encrypted. Fire and other users are almost totally in the clear. Your scanners are going to be useful for a while yet.

As for 700 - have your techs talk to the people in Alberta. We have a kind of a weird system here which is about 90% 700 MHz, 8% VHF trunking, and 2% VHF conventional (P25 conventional repeaters that are, somehow, linked back into the trunk system). The VHF is used in mountainous and remote terrain - I would not be surprised to see Ontario do something similar, with 700 south of Algonquin/Georgian Bay, and VHF in the rest (with 700 perhaps in the urban places in the north, like Sudbury, Timmins, North Bay, etc).

 

[VA3ADP]

A very good comparison! That what I was trying to explain, each province is different.

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