LA County taps Harris for new P25 system

Los Angeles County will not have to pay anything for a new $20 million Project 25 radio system from Harris as part of the county’s 800 MHz rebanding agreement with Sprint Nextel, according to the law firm of Shulman Rogers Gandal Pordy & Ecker, which helped negotiate the deal.

Los Angeles County is part of Wave 4 in the rebanding effort, although it does not share radio frequencies with the country of Mexico, said Alan Tilles chairman of the Shulman Rogers telecommunication department.

Approved by the Los Angeles County board of supervisors and the Transition Administrator, the county’s early agreement should help other entities in Southern California complete their rebanding projects, according to firm, which also said that the rebanding deal will allow Los Angeles County to receive the new P25 network—replacing an EDACs network—at no cost to the county.

“It was truly a team effort … it couldn’t have been done without cooperation from Sprint Nextel, the county and Harris,” Tilles said during an interview with Urgent Communications. “Harris really went the extra mile to help us get this done.”