Radio Upgrade Project Overview
In July 2006, the MECA Board voted to select Motorola as the vendor for the digital voice radio upgrade project. During the initial stages of the project, Motorola recommended expanding from a five-tower system to a ten-tower system; however, MECA Incident Reports and other research tools indicated there were still additional problem areas on the north side of the city. MECA worked with Motorola to design an eleven-tower system. The initial cost of the project was over $37 million to replace the current analog system (which went into operation in 1991) and to purchase new radios and dispatch consoles. The project included several new communication sites, an upgrade of existing towers, improved backup power systems, more than 6,500 new radios, and 80 new dispatch consoles for public safety and public service personnel throughout Indianapolis.
The benefits to the radio upgrade are numerous. The enhanced digital system allows for increased coverage, enhanced voice clarity and a higher level of safety. To illustrate, in April 2008, MECA, Motorola and customer representatives completed the Coverage Acceptance Testing Plan (CATP). The CATP included both mobile and stationary teams traveling the county in half-mile grids and performing transmission and reception testing to ensure Motorola met the guaranteed 97 percent coverage testing; however, the testing results indicated that the system’s coverage was 99.5 percent. Not only was the coverage better across the county, but 20 buildings, most of them in the downtown area, had guaranteed in-building coverage. The in-building coverage in the downtown area was an important first-responder safety improvement. Under the old system, receiving a radio signal in some buildings was very difficult, if not impossible. With the new system, first responders know they will have that important lifeline when entering a potentially dangerous situation.
Another major benefit is the improved reliability and increased interoperability. The new redundant infrastructure increases the level of communications reliability for the radio system during day-to-day operations and major events. The radio system provides improved interoperability with users of the Integrated Public Safety Commission’s (IPSC) statewide Motorola communications system, and Project Hoosier SAFE-T.
A concern of the digital radio system was interference from commercial cellular systems. To mitigate these effects from Sprint Nextel, the FCC mandated the “rebanding” of certain radio channels used by public safety and general government agencies. MECA occupied 22 of these rebanded channels and was required to migrate to new channels that would be free of the interference. Under the FCC’s order, Sprint Nextel was responsible for all costs associated with the migration; however, procurement of a new system was typically not permitted if the rebanding could be accomplished on the agency’s existing equipment.
The traditional approach would have required MECA to reconfigure its existing system to meet the rebanding requirements prior to implementing its new system. Instead, MECA successfully petitioned Sprint Nextel and the FCC to have the funds that would have been expended to reconfigure the old system applied instead to the implementation of MECA’s new system. This exceptional deal resulted in no additional costs to Sprint Nextel, minimized the impact on MECA’s users and allowed the City to save more than $9.4 million taxpayer dollars. As far as we know, MECA’s rebanding deal is the only one of its kind.
The new digital system was operationally complete in August 2008. Customer provided feedback has been very positive.
Please view the Radio Upgrade Presentation for a summary of the project. The presentation was given in September 2006 to a group of public safety users.