State Police SATELLITE BASED WIRELESS COMMUNICATION SERVICES AND EQUIPMENT

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Highlights from this Proposal....

http://www.state.nm.us/gsd/spd/rfp600000000097.pdf

A. PURPOSE OF THIS REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

The Purpose of this Request for Proposals (RFP) is to establish Price Agreements on a competitive basis with qualified Offerors who will supply satellite based Mobile Data, Two-Way Radio Voice, Automatic Vehicle Location, Telephone Interconnect, Rural Areas Paging, and Rural Areas Data services and related equipment to agencies of the Executive Branch of the State of New Mexico and other qualified purchasers, including local public bodies, cities, counties, public schools and the universities.

B. BACKGROUND

The State* of New Mexico requires communications capabilities for its many employees and officials who travel in and work from vehicles. The state* has for many years operated a state wide* voice two-way radio network consisting of numerous radio sites interconnected by a microwave radio infrastructure. Dispatch centers* are connected into the network. The network is used on a 24/7/365 basis by various state* public safety and other agencies. The state* operates five service and repair shops; Albuquerque, Roswell, Santa Fe, Las Cruces and Las Vegas. Two-way radio coverage* is roughly 80% of the state’s* land and water surface. Coverage* limitations have always been an issue; 100% coverage* is the ideal. The existing system does not support mobile data applications, however mobile data is now necessary to support Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) functionality. And since a CAD is in place, then Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) capabilities also become necessary. Further, a significant number of state fixed location facilities are beyond the present reach of
reasonable throughput data communications facilities. Two-way radio interoperability is limited since various state*, local and federal agencies operate on different radio bands (UHF, VHF high band, VHF low band, 800 MHz, and soon perhaps at 700 and 220 MHz). Further, cellular telephone service within New Mexico is also limited, with coverage* focusing primarily on population centers and major highways. The lack of paging
services in remote New Mexico is a particularly troublesome problem for firefighters and emergency medical first responders as is communications between enroute medical transporters (ambulances) and hospitals. State* police dispatch centers* presently are equipped with Motorola CentraCom series consoles while the non-state* police dispatch center* is equipped with an ACCESS console by AVTEC. State* police dispatch
centers* are equipped with ACCESS PBX hybrid telephone systems by InterTel while the non-state* police dispatch center* (and other state* entities) is served by a Fujitsu F9600 PBX.

C. SCOPE OF PROCUREMENT

2) TWO-WAY RADIO VOICE - The Capability* required for Two-Way Radio Voice is to equip any number of vehicles to enable the exchange of voice speech information between vehicles as well as between vehicles and fixed location dispatch centers*. This Two-Way Radio Voice Capability* will operate on the same frequency, channel or talk (community of interest) group such that any similarly equipped vehicle or fixed location can communicate with any other similarly equipped vehicle or fixed location. The envisioned Two-Way Radio Voice will function similarly to services traditionally provided
by Land Mobile Radio (LMR). Communications between mobile units, between mobile units and portable (hand held) units, as well as between mobile units and fixed locations (dispatch centers*) is its normal use. This Capability* describes voice communications which are radio frequency based, employing mobile units, portable units, repeaters, base stations, and dispatch centers. Calls are not initiated through telephone dialing and do not normally enter or traverse the PSTN* or commercial cellular or PCS telephone networks. Encryption* is very desirable.

D. CONCEPT OF OPERATION

a) The state* plans to continue converting it’s state wide* analog microwave infrastructure to digital format. The digital format microwave infrastructure will support greatly expanded digital telecommunications capabilities serving state* and local governmental entities, primarily at fixed locations. Digital microwave will also support two-way (LMR) radio to the extent that two-way voice communications coverage* and economics have not converted it to competing technology. A package of two-way radio voice and data communications, automatic vehicle location displays, and limited telephone interconnect is envisioned, connecting mobile units with each other and with dispatch centers* and other fixed locations. The state*, through its five radio electronics shops and staff, may accomplish the installations, removals and repairs involved or the state* may elect to have the successful offeror(s) accomplish them. It’s also possible that some work, especially repairs, might be accomplished by returning items to the factory or to offeror’s workshops.

 

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Thanks for taking the time to summarize the article. I lived in New Mexico in the late 70's and early 80's and loved the terrain. In most parts of the state the topography is best described as large plains with "island in the sky" type mountains and mountain ranges. In this situation it is easier to obtain radio coverage than many other states, such as much of the western portion of Colorado and northern Idaho. It shows how remote many places in New Mexico are!

For fun a person should drive between Quemado and both Grants and Gallup sometime. Another good drive is between Magdalena, where I lived, to Beaverhead and then on to Mogollon, staying off Highways 59, 30, and 159. Not an adventure to take on when the roads are snowy or wet! I have a picture of State Highway 150, known as Highway 61 when I lived in the state, that advises travelers that this state highway is passable to four wheel drive vehicles only.

It is also interesting to note in California in the mid 70's, that the then governor, Jerry Brown, picked up the nickname "Governor Moonbeam" from his detractors for suggesting that the State of California should build and have its own satellite launched. The State of New Mexico is seeking a service provider with access to a satellite to do the same thing. Ironically, a study done some years after Jerry Brown's proposal showed very significant savings in telecommunications costs for the state if his proposal had been implemented. If I remember correctly the bulk of the savings could have come in long distance phone communications. The state would have relied far less on long distance carriers and I suspect that they might have been responsible for spreading the nickname in a semi-anonymous fashion. I guess this is just another example of someone being a little bit ahead of the times.

I worked on the Cibola National Forest from 1978 through 1981, whose dispatch center and Forest Supervisor's Office is in Albuquerque, and where the Forest Service's Southwestern Regional Office is located. This region has 11 National Forests in Arizona and New Mexico. The updating of a Forest's communication system was more or less on a ten year cycle. In 1980 when the Cibola's system was being designed to include microwave links between the remote and very widely scattered sites on this Forest, which covers much of west central New Mexico, enough capacity for both data and telephone voice was included in the design. This to replace the relatively limited 400 MHz linking network. Since the Regional Office was located at the hub of the system due to the Forest Supervisor's Office being located nearby, the Cibola's system was being designed as the hub for data and telephone for the entire Region. Sites on all the National Forests in the two states were going to include provisions for not only carrying radio voice communications between the sites, but linking with the overall Regional data and phone communications network. We figured that in ten years our long distance bills could be slashed by 80% or more with calls outside the Region being responsible for most of the remaining cost. Then we got to thinking, what if we were able to tie one Region's microwave with the other, and be able to get a local dial tone in Washington, D.C. and quite a few major cities and small towns across the nation.

This was all thought up by a 2-3 radio techs working on the Cibola National Forest and the Southwest Regional Office, along with the natural resource managers on several Ranger Districts. Talk about a grassroots effort to effect cost savings to the entire agency and some others that started to become interested! At the time, microwave communications networks were well established in the private sector but were fairly new to federal government agencies, whose technology is usually 10 to 25 years behind. When you install a microwave system it does not cost very much to add some additional capacity as the real cost is in developing the site. Power, back up power, towers, dishes, buildings, road access, and most of the electronics constitute most of the cost, which would have to be incurred regardless. The 400 MHz linked network was undependable and included more marginal paths than was acceptable, mostly due to the lack of towers and power at each site.

The plan would have saved a lot of money for the Forest Service. Some other agencies such as the BLM and U.S. Fish and Wildlife expressed interest in joining the system as well. At that point some high ranking accountant type in the White House or OMB (Office of Management and Budget) got wind of what was being done and squelched the entire data/phone provision being designed into the system. It seems that there is a Congressional law that prohibits federal government agencies from building their own long distance carrier system when the private sector already provides the service and cost cannot be an exception. So here was the Congress telling us to find innovative ways to stretch our dollars and the private sector telling us that government should be run like a business, thus reducing the need for tax revenue, while both of them entered into a little known deal to prevent us from carrying out these goals.