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Hawaii Pre/iminary Technical Assessmen! • ~/OICe SeNices o Encryptiori o Talkgroup calls o Emergency call/notification o UserlD • Medium Speed Data Service • Direct interoperability with neighboring agencies • Improved coverage o Island wide o In-building 2. Voice Communications /CTAP-HUHA-PRRASSESS00/-RO The existing radio system is a wideband (25 KHz) analog conventional radio system: To re-place or upgrade this system today it is virtually a requirement to move to digital technology for product supportability. Trunking is essential to provide spectrum efficiency for a system with this many users. There remain only two viable options: install a digital trunked system that utilizes a manufacturer's proprietary technology, or use a standards based system. The standards based system in the USA is P25. We strongly suggest a P25 system to all agencies that they support and we are in complete concurrence with the Macro recommendation of a P25 system. However, we have a few concerns and comments which follow. 2.1 Public Safety Frequency Bands Comparison The four major public safety frequency bands in the U.S. are: VHF (150-174 MHz), UHF (421-512 MHz), 700 (769-775 and 799-805 MHz) and the 800 band (806-824, 806-816 after rebanding, and 851-869, 851-861 after rebanding, MHz). Given the close proximity of the 700 MHz and 800 MHz bands, they are often referred to as a single band (700/800 MHz). In fact, most modern radios have the capability to operate in the entire 700/800 MHz band. Through discussions with island representatives, (CTAP has learned that the County Of Hawaii is considering the 700/80l) band for their new system because it has the potential to provide interoperability with present radio systems in the adjacent counties and the proposed P25 700 MHz system that the State is to install. Although a 700/800 MHz would have some advantages, (CTAP suggests the County also consider the VHF band also since it has the potential to provide coverage using less RF sites due to its propagation characteristics. ACounty VHF system would provide the possibility of direct interoperability with the federal agencies that use VHF such as the National Park Service. Given these facts, the following section will compare VHF, 700 and 800. The County mentioned that a major deciding factor to move to a 700/800 MHz system was the desire to have interoperability with neighboring counties and their respective users that currently use 800 MHz systems. Therefore, if VHF is to be considered, it's important to note that in the next year or two, several radio manufacturers will be offering "multi-band" radios which will not only operate in the 700/800 MHz band, but in the VHF/700/800 bands, UHF/700/800 bands or across all four. These radios would be useful when trying to establish interoperability with users of disparate frequency October 2008