House Panel Chairman Worried About Slow Pace of Project 25 Standard Development

Chairman David Wu, D-Ore., said he’s particularly worried that the lack of standards and specifications would affect safety of equipment and competitive factors like prices. The lack of active participation from public safety agencies is an issue, said Tom Sorley, deputy director of radio communications service with the city of Houston Information Technology Department. Vendor representatives have been more active on the issue of standards than public safety, he said. Competition is hampered by a lack of understanding by public safety agencies, he said. The only consistent P25 education effort is conducted by the P25 Technology Interest Group, made up of vendors and public safety representatives, he said. A new group needs to be established to focus solely on the education and success of public safety agencies using or contemplating the use of P25 equipment, he said.

Competition isn’t encouraged by manufacturers, Sorley said. P25 manufacturers often try to sell proprietary features that reside on top of the basic P25 operation of the radios in order to force future sales of their products, he said. Competition founded on open standards would produce “the best technology, at the best prices” for public safety agencies, he said.

The slow pace of standards development has created some frustration in the radio user community, said Russ Sveda, manager of the Radio Technical Service Center with the Interior Department. Most of the standards are still in development, he said. Some 14 years into investment in the technology, agencies are still not able to design and install a Project 25 compliant system without significant engineering and customization, he said. The rate of technology change is increasing, Sorley said. Further complicating the process are regulatory changes like frequency efficiency rules that must be addressed in the standards development process, Sorley said. While it’s true that technology standards must be constantly updated, a better way of delineating the P25 standard must be developed, he said. In a May hearing, government and industry officials disagreed over how far along interoperability standards are for public safety wireless communications (CD May 28 p2).

President Ellen O'Hara of public safety vendor Zetron is concerned that competition and customer choice are limited by the slow adoption of the open-standard Console Subsystem Interface (CSSI), one of the two interfaces that connect P25 components. The lack of the widespread adoption of the CSSI has led some of Zetron’s customers to delay their transition to P25, impacting both competition and interoperability, she said. The completion of a full suite of published standards for P25 wireline interfaces would remove a significant roadblock to their adoption, O'Hara said. To hasten the completion of these standards, the federal government should consider issuing grants to manufacturers so they can allocate the resources necessary to complete the standards, she said. The federal government should also set a date within the next 12 months, after which it will no longer fund through grants the purchase of P25 networks that offer only proprietary console interfaces rather than the open-standard CSSI, she said. It means if the offered P25 network equipment can support consoles, that equipment must also support the open-standard CSSI. Otherwise, it’s ineligible for purchase using interoperability grants.

Delay in the standard has stifled competition and increased cost, said Marvin Ingram, senior director of vendor ARINC. Sellers of proprietary systems have taken advantage of the delay in standards development to “advance their gain in market share,” he said. The market is dominated by a few vendors, Sorley said. Customers have had to purchase or extend the life of their system or systems with proprietary features and functions, “often at a hefty price tag,” until the standard is developed enough to use, Ingram said. Another challenge is different manufacturers’ interpretation of standards, which could potentially cause deployment issues, he said. Open standards in public safety communications will increase competition and provide innovative, cost sensitive solutions, he said.