RES 494 Draft 01 2004-2006 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Hawaii Wireless Connectivity Initiative This initiative will begin major system integration and modernization to attain an operable public safety responder wireless environment while simultaneously building out the existing interagency interoperability. It is the beginning of an effort that will provide a P25 compliant narrowband digital voice 700 MHz trunked radio system to serve the rural counties (County of Kauai, Maui County, and County of Hawaii) and State agencies. This initiative is one of the two supported by the Hawaii Wireless Interoperability Network (HWIN), a top executive level coordinating body that brings together local, State, federal, and military decision making authorities. This investment will provide radio coverage to azeas in the County of Hawaii, Maui County, and urban Oahu that contain more than 55% of the population of the State of Hawaii. This investment will also provide redundant and complimentary coverage for Oahu, the State's center of commerce, shipping, and transportation and: the home to the majority of the State's population. Initial interoperability between the new system and the City and County of Honolulu radio system, which is not P25 compliant, will be via intersystem connection at the baseband, or voice, level. Similar baseband connections will be made to ensure interoperability with existing militazy and federal trunked and conventional systems as well as existing State and local systems. Across the State, all of the rural counties and most State agencies have very limited interoperability or prospects for increasing interoperability with systems currently in place. However, State and County first responders in Hawaii County have interoperability because they aze all using the same vintage of decades old VHF equipment! The risk of imminent failure is high for them as well as the users of the various dispazate radio systems employed by State Medicom, and the members of the State Law Enforcement Coalition. Equipment age, limited or poor coverage, lack or unavailability of spares, and insufficient subscriber equipment aze the reasons that make these systems marginal and risky for routine use. The replacement of these radio systems is a priority for each individual agency. Unless a cooperative regional solution is forthcoming, these agencies will have no other recourse than to patch and rebuild single user systems. Statewide coverage based upon a uniform standazd is necessary to be able to exploit the intrastate use of personnel and resources from other levels of government and adjoining jurisdictions. It is necessary to deploy a redundant public safety radio system on Oahu to responsibly support responders who serve that highly populated island that contains the bulk of the State's economic, transportation, and shipping resources. The goal is to establish this capability in the 700 MHz Public Safety band to enable the future solicitation of Federal agency participation. The 700 MHz Public Safety band is the only spectrum resource that can be shared with and used by federal agencies for routine operations. The building of a public safety radio resource with a potential for future federal participation would reinforce the local habit of cooperation, learned from Hawaii's isolation, which has aided the formation of mutual aid partnerships that would be deemed unconventional elsewhere. Initiative 1 -Synopsis Hawaii Wireless Connectivity Attachment 4