Harris declares plan to protest Florida intent to award large P25 contract to Motorola Solutions
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- Harris declares plan to protest Florida intent to award large P25 contract to Motorola Solutions
- Harris declares plan to protest Florida intent to award large P25 contract to Motorola Solutions
- Harris declares plan to protest Florida intent to award large P25 contract to Motorola Solutions
- Harris declares plan to protest Florida intent to award large P25 contract to Motorola Solutions
Harris declares plan to protest Florida intent to award large P25 contract to Motorola Solutions
Florida’s RFP called for bidders to build a P25 Phase 2 network that provides 98% mobile coverage throughout the state’s geography, as well as 95% portable coverage throughout Florida, including 25 miles off coast, Marcella said.
Harris proposed meeting the new P25 coverage requirements by leveraging the existing sites used for the SLERS network, Marcella said.
In fact, the Harris proposal calls for 190 RF sites, compared to the 197 sites that are support the SLERS network today, Marcella said.
“Because we were able to move some sites around and because of the benefit of new technology, we were able to provide more coverage with slightly … fewer sites,” Marcella said.
Given the fact that the Harris proposal promises to leverage the existing SLERS infrastructure from a Florida-based company, Green said that the intent to award the P25 contract to Motorola Solutions is puzzling.
“Harris’ proposal leverages the state’s extensive investment in the existing Harris-built network, which is one of the most robust public safety systems in the country,” Green said in a prepared statement provided to IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “The state instead chose an out-of-state supplier to build a new duplicate network, when we believe an incremental investment is the more prudent approach.
“We are disappointed in the state’s decision, because we’re confident our proposal is a more efficient, flexible and less costly long-term approach. However, we will work with the state to better understand the award decision and our options moving forward.”
Another problem facing the state is the timing associated with implementing the proposed P25 system. The existing SLERS contract expires on June 30, 2021, at which point the new P25 system needs to be operational to ensure that Florida first responders can make a smooth transition to the proposed LMR network.
But the procurement process is not expected to be completed until the protest review is finished late this year, and a funding source to pay for the buildout of the proposed P25 network likely could not be identified until March 2019, when the legislature is due to approve the next budget. This timeline would leave the vendor only 28 months to deploy the statewide P25 system before the SLERS contract expires—something that Harris believes it could execute but other vendors would find very difficult, Marcella said.
“We believed it was achievable for us, because we’re reutilizing so much of the existing site infrastructure—towers, shelters and that kind of thing,” Marcella said. “Because we didn’t have to do a lot of site acquisition—we had no greenfield sites, meaning we had no towers to actually build—and because we … proposed an implementable design, we felt we could achieve it within the 28-month schedule and get it done by the end of June 2021.
“We think it’s a challenge for the state, if they don’t have a real design, if they’re having to build lots of towers, if they’re dependent upon interlocal agreements to utilize other people’s networks, we think they’re going to be challenged to hit a schedule that would facilitate completion by the end of June 2021. It would be tough.”
In particular, “it can take a year to get a site on the air” in densely populated areas of south Florida, given the zoning and environmental restrictions, Marcella said.
I love how the author is
I love how the author is espousing that first responders are anticipated to flock to firstnet. The good news is most in public safety know better and will not fall for the line of BS and will not trust mission critical communications to a cell phone network and teenager designed cell phone devices. The good news is I was at IWCE this year, and the sediment was pro LMR networks and a whole lot of apprehension about firstnet.. and rightfully so. Firstnet is a data network, plain and simple. It provides nothing more than what is currently available by any cell phone vendor, except that it is funded on the backs of the taxpayers.
“Firstnet is a data network,
“Firstnet is a data network, plain and simple. It provides nothing more than what is currently available ” Oh wow this is fake news! Why are so may LMR techs scared of technological advances?
No one even mentioned the
No one even mentioned the State system used to be a Motorola system and the State threw them out for failure to meet contract obligations and wanting to charge an astronomical amount of money to fix their mistakes.
A lot of this is more about
A lot of this is more about politics than performance!
This is simply turn-about is
This is simply turn-about is fair play. M/A-Com (Now Harris) system was developed as they were building out the state with MANY, MANY do overs. The Simulcast coverage was horrible and interference issues because they all the flux in ownership and little money at the time it was being installed. The state is frustrated from M/A-Com’s original project where they proposed only 137 sites to cover the entire state (mobile coverage to 95%) with some portable coverage in metros. The users should have the most input as to what is needed and not the vendor. I know this to be the case.
Keep in mind because Harris
Keep in mind because Harris has a proprietary system it is not the national standard P-25. That means repalcement radios/equipment can’t be put out to bid. The state MUST buy from Harris because the system is proprietary.
Because of the Harris system
Because of the Harris system in Pa I’m not surprised Flordia is bailing out.
P25, the biggest gravy train
P25, the biggest gravy train in Public Safety going in the western world for the last 10-15 years and unjustifiably so. Look at DMR with it’s thriving app developer community and faster to market movement in terms of innovation and feature development. What’s the latest to come from the P25 standards people? TDMA control channels? From a coverage perspective there is little separating the two technologies yet a belief that only P25 will do for Public Safety. All LMR vendors are shaking in their boots at the prospect of their over priced handset and system business being cannibalised by LTE. It’s simply an evolution to another radio technology, nothing more nothing less. Current issues and roadblocks such as direct mode will be solved because that’s what humans do, they solve problems once they’re fully understood. It’s only a matter of time folks. We should embrace and move unless we’re keen on another Kodak moment.