N.Y. network doesn't make grade

Sep 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Donny Jackson

State may nix $2 billion contract following latest round of disappointing tests

With key players in the New York state government proclaiming the first phase of a statewide wireless network a failure, Tyco Electronics M/A-COM appeared to be in jeopardy of losing the largest public-safety LMR contract in the history of the U.S. on the eve of a scheduled decision on the project.

“New York is not much closer to a statewide network today than it was when this whole process started,” said Thomas DiNapoli, New York state comptroller, in a statement on Aug. 21. “After three rounds of failed testing, it is apparent that this system is not ready to move forward. M/A-COM has not met its contractual obligations, and New York can't afford to spend $2 billion on a system that doesn't work right. It's time to fish or cut bait. M/A-COM has to deliver what it promised.”

DiNapoli's critical statements coincided with the comptroller's office releasing two audits regarding the Statewide Wireless Network (SWN) — one of which indicated that M/A-COM had failed to fulfill the performance benchmarks in its contract and another that questioned the economic benefit to potential network subscribers.

“Even if the system is fixed, our audit of Erie County demonstrates that localities should seriously look at alternatives to SWN,” DiNapoli said, noting that Erie County could save $30 million by building its own system and paying only for a gateway to interoperate with the statewide network.

The comptroller's first audit cited several deficiencies that existed in all three rounds of testing, the last of which was conducted in July, after M/A-COM had certified the network to be ready. These findings also were acknowledged by the state's Office for Technology (OFT), which delivered its own scathing review of the system performance during an Aug. 13 meeting of the SWN advisory council.

During that meeting, SWN Program Director Jonathan Spanos outlined several perceived deficiencies in the first buildout phase covering Erie and Chautauqua counties. Spanos said the July test demonstrated a 31% failure rate for mobile radios tested on the system, a 60% failure rate among vehicular tactical repeaters and a 78% failure rate for portable radios.

“A failure was defined as the radio being rendered inoperative, whether it was by a hardware failure or a software failure,” he said.

These equipment failure rates were higher than was experienced during the first two rounds of testing, said Melodie Mayberry-Stewart, the state's CIO and OFT director. “It appeared that, as you fixed one thing, something else was not fixed,” she said during the Aug. 13 meeting.