Batboard

So much for MA/COM attempt at the NY Statewide Wireless Network
http://www.oft.state.ny.us/News/PressRe ... ntract.htm

Am I upset? Not really.

Good

I read on the NYS office of technology website a PDF of the deficiencies noted and there were some rather big issues that came up with this implementation. There seems to be similar issues in Pennsylvania with MA/COM as well with big delays in rolling things out and reliability issues, etc. MA/COM got these contracts because they were the low bid from what I read vs. Motorola where their bid was much higher.

Does Motorola do things better with putting out a statewide network and the related infrastructure (towers, radios, data systems, etc). I see moto has the Starcom 21 system in Illinois and on googling this I do not see much bad press on this.

Or in general is the technology for doing this kind of network not really there yet to cover a whole state with 95% coverage. There are plenty of places in upstate NY where there is no cellphone signal so I'd say they do not have that coverage level either.

Just a thought more to the business side of the issue, Motorola has been Motorola for years with no major change in ownership, MA/COM has bounced around with several owners and name changes with no real popularity since back in the GE days. Just my off hand 2 cent worth.
Steve W.
Buffalo NY

486dx4 wrote: Does Motorola do things better with putting out a statewide network and the related infrastructure (towers, radios, data systems, etc). I see moto has the Starcom 21 system in Illinois and on googling this I do not see much bad press on this.

Motorola must be doing some thing right if they have statewide Astro25 networks set up in Illinois, Alaska, Colorado, Michigan, West Virginia, Virginia and Arkansas. And in Indiana, Ohio,Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersy, North Carolina,South Carolina and Delaware they have SmartZone systems statewide. (Correct me if i'm wrong.) Granted some systems are owned by the state and others owned by Motorola but obviously their product is working better that M/A Com. In reference to Starcom21, Illinois Astro25 Statewide system, I know they are still having some problems with simulcasts and what not but for the most part I haven't heard of many complaints.

I think this spells the end for M/A-Com. OpenSky is not up to par for public safety. It is clear that they did not test it and just bought OpenSky to resell in a half-ass attempt to compete with Motorola and EFJ in the system market. It's woefully full of bugs and glitches, and their continual unfulfilled promises only further erode their credibility in the market place. Looks like Ma M can look forward to gaining some new contracts.

Being that M/A COM was the low bidder, one could follow that age old adage " You get what you pay for".

It's true that Motorola's bid was much higher than MA-COM's. Hopefully /\/\ took into consideration that a statewide system with 95% coverage would require a lot of new towers for it to actually work as spec'd. There's no perfect system for the most part unless the end user installs the proper amount of towers, and expects to add more, and has enough spectrum once the testing and system goes live. It would be great to see someone successfully build out a statewide system for New York that provides the coverage and functionality that they need. Is it going to cost billions??? You betcha. It will be interesting to see what NY does next after the legal battles are over. For the sake of public safety statewide, I hope the right decisions are made no matter the vendor and they choose a standards based system, a la P25. At least the CIO's office had the right folks on board to nix a system that would not work for them. Best of luck to all those involved.

Motorola has had a lot more experience building out these systems. While their pricing may call for a premium for their product, they do generally deliver what they promise. And Motorola is rather adept at making realistic promises when bidding out a system. It's easy to cover the first 90-95% of a given coverage area, that last small portion can end up being just as expensive as the first.

If anything, this will serve to cement Motorola as the go-to source for wide area networks. I was just reading my daily bid notifications and it looks like the fires at Camp Pendleton destroyed enough sites that they are migrating to a 7.7 SZ system with over 100 GTR8000s to be purchased and installed.

Lucky them. Too bad Pennsylvania is stuck with OpenSky.....

Pendleton lost some of their new 380MHz sites or are they expanding??? I'm assuming that the 406MHz systems are defunct and the spectrum will be realocated back to mil/NTIA for reassignment. I enjoy monitoring them from home on the base system and at work off Pleasants Peak site.

re: Camp Pendleton, read here: https://www.neco.navy.mil/synopsis_file ... dleton.doc

486dx4 wrote:I see moto has the Starcom 21 system in Illinois and on googling this I do not see much bad press on this.
.

Most of the State and Local officers near me like it. Of course with any analog to digital migration... most of them miss the old analog VHF system. (which worked just fine btw....)

I am glad to see they finally wiped their hands of Ma/Com this .
Hopefully we can get a simple state wide p25 system nothing fancy

Here is a link to details of the deficiencies:

http://www.oft.state.ny.us/SWN/swndocs/ ... hibitB.pdf

k2hz wrote:Here is a link to details of the deficiencies:

http://www.oft.state.ny.us/SWN/swndocs/ ... hibitB.pdf

Now that was some interesting reading....thanks for sharing.

I was looking for those Exhibits,thanks for posting the shortcut URL.
Given current financial state that NY is in I doubt a new RFP anytime soon to go out.Patakis dream bubble has popped.

I see moto has the Starcom 21 system in Illinois and on googling this I do not see much bad press on this. Most of the State and Local officers near me like it. Of course with any analog to digital migration... most of them miss the old analog VHF system. (which worked just fine btw....)

I get to use the starcom 21 system every once and awhile and it works pretty good. One must understand this system is owned and operated by motorola. Illinois the end user only rents the system. With Monthly billing charges and some contracts made to departments for day to day use The cost of operating it can be more affordable for small counties or towns then purchasing and operating their own system. I wonder if this is going to be the way to do it. Let motorola eat the cost of complete perfection of the system and just lease the end user on it. Companies do it with LTR. Who says it can't be public safety P25.

I must add It is pretty cool to talk to someone on a portable in side a convention center while im over 500 miles away sitting in a dispatch center.

My two cents worth:

1) Open Sky is an immature product. Motorola specializes in selling immature products, but at least the SmartNet/SmartZone system is capable of working (if properly designed and if the owner has sufficient tech savvy to sit on Motorola).

2) Motorola knows little more than M/A-Com about building out wide-area sites, which is an intensely local issue. Those wide area systems that work do so because the owner and its reps know what they're doing and they run the show. However, setting up the deployment this way involves the owner retaining a good measure of responsibility and risk; most modern state government types opt for "turn key" systems because they are afraid of taking any responsiblity or risk, and this leaves the deployment decisions to the vendor. The results are generally predictable.