Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Some call for cheaper radio system

From: NEXTEL-1
Date: Sun, 04 Jul 2004 13:59:45 -0400

Published Monday
June 28, 2004

Some call for cheaper radio system
BY MARTHA STODDARD

WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

LINCOLN - Nebraska could put an end to the stories told by state
troopers, sheriff's deputies, rescue personnel and others of
working the same border-to-border police chase or bank robbery
investigation and being unable to radio each other.
And it could do so for a fraction of what a new statewide radio system
would cost, communication experts say.
The cost difference raises questions about the plans for a common,
statewide radio system being developed by the Statewide
Communications Alliance of Nebraska.

SCAN is charged with making direct communication possible among state
and local authorities from one end of the state to the
other - "interoperability," in telecommunications lingo.

"There are lots of ways to achieve interoperability," said Michael
Jeffres, state radio communications manager. "It's probably the easy
choice if you had unlimited money to just do the same system for
everyone. (But) you don't need all the latest whiz-bang
technology to achieve interoperability."

Lynn Rex, executive director of the Nebraska League of Municipalities,
defended the SCAN plan, saying a statewide radio system would give
authorities valuable communication capability during emergencies.
"You don't go out in this day and age and buy a cassette player when
everyone's buying CDs," she said. "We're going to have to look at what
level of statewide interoperability the State of Nebraska is prepared to
have. Some folks will say they are prepared not to have data transfers,
for example."

Either building a statewide radio system or linking existing radio
systems can achieve the goal of interoperability.
The first is akin to having all parties on the same computer network,
using the same software. The second is more like the
Internet, which uses a variety of means to exchange information among
disparate computer systems running various software.
Curt Beck, project administrator for the communications alliance,
estimated that all emergency responder radio systems in the
state could be linked through technology for $18 million to $20 million.

Bill Clancy, area sales director for M/A-Com, a Massachusetts-based
communications company, pegged the cost at about $15 million.

Both estimates are about one-fifth the price tag for a common, statewide
radio system, the plan pushed by the SCAN board and others. That plan
has been stymied for years by its $85 million to $100 million estimated
cost.
It came up short again in this year's Nebraska Legislature, when
senators balked at imposing fees on electric bills to pay for the
system.

"What happened with SCAN kind of proved the State of Nebraska is not
going to be in a position anytime soon to have a single statewide
system," said Mark Conrey, director of communications for Douglas
County.

Instead, he and others suggest the state build on the regional
communications networks that will be created with the latest
round of federal homeland security grants.

More than $23 million worth of grants were announced in May. The bulk of
the money will go for multi-county projects that aim toward regional
interoperability and communication upgrades.

James Gerweck, emergency manager for Richardson County and a SCAN board
member, praised the grant process because it forced local officials to
sit down and work out collaborative projects.

"Up until this point, a lot of people sat back and waited for someone to
come up with a plan," he said. "When someone said you have to have a
plan to apply for grants . . . to me, it was a blessing."

The lure of money got many local officials to talk through problems such
as which channels to use for communication among
agencies, how to program each other's radios, what protocols to adopt
and where a new tower should go to benefit the most
agencies.

Those kinds of discussions are critical in achieving interoperability,
experts say.

"One-third of the equation is the technology," Conrey said. "The other
two-thirds of the equation is planning and exercising."
But at a SCAN board meeting last week, some questioned whether building
regional interoperability would lead to statewide
results. As Rex put it: "What you don't want to do is replace old radios
that don't talk to each other with new radios that don't talk to each
other."

Jeffres said the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency, which administers
the grants, will be on guard against such
problems.

Building on regional projects also doesn't address problems with the
older radio systems used by state agencies, including the
Nebraska State Patrol, Game and Parks Commission and Department of
Roads.

The SCAN plan would upgrade those systems and provide a seamless
solution to the interoperability problem, Beck said. But
Jeffres and Conrey said the upgrades and interoperability problems can
be resolved separately.

Sen. Tom Baker of Trenton, chairman of the Transportation and
Telecommunications Committee, said he believes Nebraska
has to deal with communication problems in smaller chunks to make it
affordable.

"We don't have the luxury of $100 million available," he said. "Instead
of waiting for the entire SCAN package to come together,
this is an alternative. We're going to have to take this a bit at a time
and see where we go."

Copyright ©2004 Omaha World-Herald®.
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np==0&u_pg=38&u_sid=34262

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