Subject: [NEXTEL-1] State radio system still undone

From: NEXTEL-1
Date: Sun, 04 Jul 2004 12:41:03 -0400

Posted on Mon, Jun. 28, 2004

State radio system still undone

No completion is in sight for a public safety
network begun eight years ago, and critics
say it won't work.

By 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, said Karen Walsh, spokeswoman for the
state Auditor General's Office. "There are a lot of questions that span
two administrations.
"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
talking on it, and about 1,000 state troopers transmit data on it.
Eventually, planners expect 25,000 people to use the system for such
things as snowplow-to-snowplow communications, 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 report is due in August.
The network's 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, 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., 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 now 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 spots where they lose contact with dispatchers.
Pennsylvania State Police 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.
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 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 handheld
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.
State agencies will need to spend about $54 million to buy radios -
money not included in the $240 million.
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."

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsylvania/cities_neighborhoods/philadelphia/9029254.htm?1c

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