Firstnet is still an 8 billion dollar pipe dream. VoLTE is still vaporware. P25, like it or not, is really the only viable option right now. Sure, twenty years from now P25 might not be the right option. But right now, show me another?
Tetra isn't an option because there aren't enough 25KHz channels to make a large system work in most cases. And if you want to see expensive try out a tetra terminal. They make P25 look reasonable. By the way, Motorola invented Tetra too. Blaming Motorola for inventing something, and then not wanting to give it away is simply rediculous. Would you do that? Lastly, you are not seriously comparing a $100 Chinese piece of crap to a piece of gear you would bet your life on are you? Really? About the cheapest P25 portable you can get is $1250 while the same model without P25 is about $855. So the license to do P25 is about $400. Pretty pricey no doubt. Maybe to much, but also reliable. But, not everyone wants the reliability, interoperability, or the price tag that goes with it. I honestly think DMR TIER 3 has some compelling arguements at a better price point. But like most other protocols it is late to the party. On Wed, Nov 4, 2015, 6:21 PM Chuck McCown <[email protected]> wrote: Thanks Brian. No, Utah is asking the taxpayer for $236 million... Lots of people arguing against it. *From:* Brian Webster <[email protected]> *Sent:* Wednesday, November 04, 2015 4:57 PM *To:* [email protected] *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] OT 2-way radio systems P25 or Project 25 was a Motorola proprietary technology that was developed in the 80’s. They championed it to APCO to become the digital standard for public safety radio systems. APCO would not adopt it until Motorola agree to license it to other manufacturers. That delayed the process a very long time and Motorola went kicking and screaming in to the agreements at first. It was not cheap for a manufacturer to go that way but APCO did not want a single vendor solution. In the rest of the world the Tetra standard was adopted but again this are older technologies. Now the push is for LTE and Voice over LTE. When the FCC mandated narrowbanding for analog VHF and UHF radio systems they gave a 15 year window to migrate. Even with that much lead time big cities like NYC, Boston, DC and others did not make the deadline because it was typically a complete system replacement. These big cities got waivers with a plan to migrate, those plans were special licenses for the Firstnet spectrum and the plan to develop a public safety grade/reliable voice over IP type network to become their primary dispatch radio system in conjunction with their data deployments. That VoLTE development is ongoing. They need a lot more reliability than what Nextel and CDMA push to talk cellular solutions currently deliver. Given that VoLTE development and the push for FirstNet systems, many folks argue that it’s a waste of money to go P25 at this point. There are even some Tetra deployments now in the US. Seems to me a standard that follows LTE and will also work in the narrowband spectrum of public safety radio systems is more productive. I started my wireless career in public safety radio designing and selling Motorola systems. I think they build a great product but P25 radios are way too expensive for smaller agencies to afford them. With the proliferation of sub $100 FCC approved Chinese radios out there, it’s real hard to justify these digital systems when one is on a budget. P25 radios are in the $1500 per radio price range. Small fire, EMS and law enforcement agencies have a hard time paying those prices. There are benefits to digital systems but in all honesty many users don’t take advantage of them. The cost of the central site controllers for the system really pushes the price tag up. To add insult to injury almost all federal grant programs now state that if there are radios involved, they HAVE to be P25 compliant. The DOD has mandated all radios be P25 compliant. If Utah is getting grant money that is probably why they are going P25. Thank You, Brian Webster www.wirelessmapping.com www.Broadband-Mapping.com *From:* Af [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *chuck@ <[email protected]>wbmfg.com <[email protected]> *Sent:* Wednesday, November 04, 2015 4:56 PM *To:* [email protected] *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] OT 2-way radio systems Thanks, that is helpful. *From:* George <[email protected]>Skorup <[email protected]> *Sent:* Wednesday, November 4, 2015 2:50 PM *To:* [email protected] *Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] OT 2-way radio systems Illinois has state-wide P25 (owned and operated by Motorola Solutions). Interoperability between agencies and all of the other P25 stuff is nice, but every little town can't afford it and that's why we still have little dispatch centers that represent small communities and make use of regular old analog VHF. Plus, a lot of users on the state system say the coverage sucks, and that would be Motorola not building enough sites. On 11/4/2015 1:16 PM, [email protected] wrote: In Utah, there is a very very large proposal to change all the 2-way radios for public safety out to a P25 system.� Some of the opponents say this is an outdated system.� I had not heard that before.� Looking for opinions.�
