Subject: [NEXTEL-1] No finish line in sight for statewide public safety radio network

From: NEXTEL-1
Date: Sun, 27 Jun 2004 13:42:29 -0400

No finish line in sight for statewide public safety radio network

MARK SCOLFORO

Associated Press

DAUPHIN, Pa. - Three miles up a narrow gravel road in
central Pennsylvania, a fenced-in radio tower atop a
mountain represents a critical link in a $240 million
public safety communications network the state began
work on eight years ago.

Below the tower, a simple building contains racks of
sophisticated electronics, the guts of a system
designed to tie together 22 state agencies in a single
centralized radio network.

Critics say replacing the state government's
hodgepodge of largely incompatible radio systems has
already taken too long and cost too much. Questions
also remain about whether the system will work
properly.

"This was behind schedule and over budget when the
(Rendell) administration came to office; there are a
lot of questions that span two administrations," said
Karen Walsh, spokeswoman for the state Auditor
General's Office. "There are certainly concerns and
there have been over many years about the cost of the
program."

The Statewide Public Safety Radio System signal now
reaches nearly 80 percent of Pennsylvania's land area.
About 4,000 state workers are currently talking on it,
and about a thousand state troopers transmit data on
it.

Eventually, planners expect 25,000 people to use the
system for everything from snowplow-to-snowplow
communications to checking vehicle registrations and
finding the nearest park ranger. It is designed to let
agencies talk to one another, which officials hope
will improve response to major emergencies and
disasters.

The communication network is supposed to serve at
least 95 percent of every county, but deadline after
deadline has come and gone, and state officials are
not offering a finish date.

State Rep. Kelly Lewis, R-Monroe, said no further
delays can be justified. "We don't know when the next
terrorist attack is going to occur. We don't know when
there's going to be a major accident on an interstate
highway," he said.

The Rendell administration awarded a $96,000 contract
earlier this month to iXP Corp., a Lawrenceville,
N.J., consulting firm, to determine the reasons for
the delays, how much has been spent on the project and
what remains to be done.

The biggest hurdle has been locating and building 198
giant towers, some as tall as 380 feet. The bankruptcy
last year of Rohn Industries Inc. of Peoria, Ill., the
towers' prime contractor, only further slowed a
project that had once been scheduled for completion in
April 2001.

"Ask anybody in retrospect now, who's involved in this
project - they will admit that probably the completion
schedule was too optimistic, too aggressive," said
Adrian R. King Jr., Gov. Ed Rendell's deputy chief of
staff. Despite the problems, King said the
administration is committed to completing it.

State officials say that, despite the significant
upfront cost, a consolidated system will be cheaper to
maintain than the multiple independent systems
currently in use.

They tout the high-tech features of M/A-Com Inc.'s
"OpenSky" system - global positioning, data handling
and encryption - as ways to make state government more
efficient. M/A-Com, a wireless communications
manufacturer based in Lowell, Mass., is making the
system's radios and other electronics.

Reaching the entire coverage area will require 16 more
big towers and about 400 more "microcells" to fill in
the gaps in signal among the state's mountain valleys
and remote areas. Bids to construct the remaining
towers are expected to go out shortly.

Lingering questions remain about how well the system
will operate when fully in place. The Nevada Highway
Patrol recently began installing $10 million worth of
M/A-Com radios in its vehicles, but troopers have been
complaining of dead spots where they lose contact with
dispatchers.

State police here won't replace their old radios until
the project reaches its coverage and backup system
goals, said technology services director Maj. Wesley
R. Waugh. In the meantime, the department is using the
system's data-handling capacity to send records to
troopers in the field, a tool that has already helped
make felony arrests.

"We have no intention of migrating to voice until
we're sure those issues that are out there are
addressed," Waugh said.

The state police also are implementing a $134 million
incident information management system, a separate
project that transmits over the statewide radio
system.

A single statewide radio system was conceived as
something that would primarily serve government
agencies, but after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks, it became more of a priority to allow local
emergency responders to hook in, a process called
"interoperability."

It will be relatively easy to accomplish that in about
half of the state's 67 counties. But in more remote
areas, and where the existing radio systems are more
primitive, switching over will require more funding,
said radio project director Don Appleby, in the
state's Office of Administration.

Even then, the radio signal won't be strong enough to
reach hand-held portable radios commonly used by
police officers and firefighters. That level of
service requires either signal repeaters - the state
police are installing them inside vehicles - or more
towers.

Lancaster County, one of two Pennsylvania counties to
purchase an OpenSky system for 911 use, is spending
$35 million on a network of 17 new towers. It isn't
expected to be functioning until at least 2006.

The iXP review is looking at the interoperability
issue as well as barriers to getting state agencies to
fully adopt the radio system. The agencies will need
to spend about $54 million to buy radios - money not
included in the $240 million.

"It turns out that agencies haven't been able to
support (it) as much as they would like and we would
like," Appleby said. "Without going into all the
details, this office has been tasked with stepping up
to support transition to help agencies make the move."

A Harrisburg lobbyist for Motorola Inc., which lost
the contract to M/A-Com, said he doubts OpenSky will
ever work as it is supposed to.

"I defy you to go to any agency and have the two of
them talk to each other," said the lobbyist, John
O'Connell. "They can't do it. This does not work. It's
three years late, it's $200 million over budget and it
does not work."

The iXP report is due in August.

ON THE NET

Statewide radio system: www.radio.state.pa.us

M/A-Com's OpenSky: http://www.opensky.com/

http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/9020381.htm

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