Nov 29, 2011 4:08 PM, By Donny Jackson (donald.jackson@penton.com)

Public-safety personnel in Adams County, Colo., in 2013 should be able to leverage mobile broadband data from the private, 17-site LTE system the county is building and testing next year, according to an Adams County official.

“We expect to start putting LTE sectors live in this upcoming spring in the February/March timeframe,” said Walt Leslie, senior communications technician at the Adams County Communications Center (ADCOM911). “As we’re putting those in, we’ll be putting the backhaul links into each of those sites. We expect that to take probably until late summer to get all of that done, and then we’ll start testing. We don’t expect to go live with all users until sometime in 2013.”

In June, Adams County signed an $8.7 million contract with Raytheon to build the LTE system, with the funding being provided by a federal grant that was part of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP).

To address the greater capacity of an LTE system, Raytheon will upgrade backhaul on the Adams County system to fiber — where it is available—and to Ethernet microwave from Exalt Communications, Leslie said. IPWireless is providing the LTE equipment and devices, with a few USB air cards undergoing initial functionality testing, he said. Final devices are scheduled for delivery next fall, when the system will be fully tested in preparation for its launch in 2013, Leslie said.

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