By Donny Jackson

The Los Angeles Regional Interoperable Communications System (LA-RICS) announced its final acceptance of its much-anticipated Project 25 (P25) radio system built by Motorola Solutions during a ribbon-cutting ceremony conducted last month.

LA-RICS Executive Director Scott Edson said the Los Angeles region has “moved into the 21st Century, when it comes to day-to-day public-safety radio communications and interoperability” with the acceptance of the new P25 system, which is one of the largest and most expensive regional land-mobile-radio (LMR) networks in the U.S.

“This new land-mobile-radio system is built to public-safety grade, which includes redundant power, redundant network connectivity, and structural integrity to ensure the system is resilient and remains fully operational during a disaster,” according to Edson’s prepared speech delivered during the Nov. 17 ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“The land-mobile-radio system provides ‘operable’ communications for public-safety subscribers and free interoperability between public-safety agencies. When I say operable communications, I’m talking about day-to-day radio communications for public-safety first and secondary responders. This includes the routine and emergencies. We will connect with all the public-safety radio systems in this region for incredible and life-saving interoperability.  All police, fire and emergency-medical services will be able to talk to each other.”

Other key radio networks in the region that could be part of this interoperable initiative include the Interagency Communications Interoperability (ICI) system and future City of Los Angeles Police Department P25 network, Edson has said.

Already used by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department—led by Sheriff Robert Luna, who also chairs the LA-RICS Joint Powers Authority board—and Inglewood Police Department, the LA-RICS P25 system also is scheduled to be used by the Los Angeles County Fire Department this year, Edson has said previously.

During his ribbon-cutting speech, Edson noted that the new P25 network will be used to support local law-enforcement efforts to secure multiple major events in the region in upcoming years.

“This system will be used during major planned events, all events at So-Fi [Stadium], the Rose Bowl, the World Cup games and Olympics that are coming to Los Angeles,” according to Edson’s prepared remarks.

Edson said the LA-RICS radio system initially was envisioned by Los Angeles County public-safety officials in 2009, when the LA-RICS Joint Powers Authority was established. Realizing this vision “has been a long time coming and an incredible accomplishment,” Edson stated in a comment posted on LinkedIn.

“I’m so proud of so many that never gave up to get the system over the finish line,” Edson said on LinkedIn. “Public safety and public that we serve will benefit from this for years to come.”

After LA-RICS first awarded a US$600 million contract for both the LMR and LTE networks to Raytheon in a bidding process initiated in 2010, a legal technicality uncovered in 2011 resulted in both systems being procured separately.

When the LMR project was rebid, Motorola Solutions was selected and signed a contract with LA-RICS for the LMR system in August 2013. Motorola Solutions subsequently also was chosen to build the LTE network, signing a contract to deploy the LA-RICS broadband wireless in March 2014.

The scope of both the P25 and LTE networks for LA-RICS were reduced significantly in 2015—largely by redesign on the LTE side of the project in the spring of that year—in part because of claims of RF dangers from the local firefighters’ union. The 232-site LTE plan was pared to 77 sites and eventually 76 sites. In 2018, the 76 sites were transferred to AT&T for FirstNet, and LA-RICS later built another 26 LTE sites that were transferred to AT&T for the FirstNet initiative.

Meanwhile, the LA-RICS P25 project was reduced from more than 80 sites to its current 58-site configuration, in part because the city of Los Angeles opted to pull out of the regional initiative in November 2015.

LA-RICS officials had expected to accept the finished LMR system in 2020. Early in 2021, LA-RICS received an “information-only” document from Motorola Solutions estimating a project end date of February 2023, according to LA-RICS board minutes.

When asked in June 2021 to explain the reasons for the P25 project being behind schedule, Edson told IWCE’s Urgent Communications, “We were supposed to be done by now, but fires, floods, the pandemic, resources, supply-chain issues and some preventable delays have further delayed the programme.”

At that time, Edson declined to elaborate on the “preventable delays” he referenced, but the approved minutes from previous board LA-RICS board meetings revealed several points of contention with Motorola Solutions regarding its performance on the project.

In October 2021, LA-RICS and Motorola Solutions agreed to a new target completion date of October 2023 for the P25 system, and final acceptance was modified to November earlier this year.https://urgentcomm.com