Subject: [NEXTEL-1] State ready to award $1B wireless job

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 04 May 2004 22:22:05 -0400

State ready to award $1B wireless job

Albany-- Emergency, police communications contract could include
building towers in the
Adirondacks

By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau

First published: Thursday, April 29, 2004

The state is on the verge of awarding the
biggest technology contract in its history --
expected to cost more than $1 billion and
require hundreds of large towers --
to create a statewide wireless network
for improved emergency and police communications.

The winning bidder would set up a system throughout New York that would
allow police, fire and other emergency agencies to connect to
dispatchers and a variety of other agencies, and fill in existing gaps
in radio connections.
The bidder may also end up building
hundreds of towers and other structures
in areas such as the Adirondacks.

John McFadden, sales vice president of
the northern division for Motorola, said
the extensive demands of the New York
system would call for more than 1,200
towers to be built including about 400 in
the Adirondacks and 200 in the Catskills,
some as tall as 120 feet. Each would have
a bunker storing 1,000 gallons of gasoline to assure their power.

"That's the real cost-driver," he said, adding that some towers,
particularly those in the Adirondacks, would require construction of
roads. "That's a significant amount of money. I would say a billion
(dollars) is low."

The state has nearly completed 14 months reviewing just two bids it
received in response to a highly complex and detailed request. It will
announce the winning bid by Monday, said James Dillon, the state's chief
information officer.

The network is for state public safety and public service agencies and
would be open to local governments at their option.
Dillon said the state intends to phase in the network and will test it
in a pilot project in one part of the state before committing to the
full contract. He added that 16 environmental hearings will be conducted
statewide and the state will try to minimize the number of new
structures needed.

He declined to reveal details of the two bids. However, some people
close to the bidding said a proposal by M/A-Com, a wholly owned
subsidiary of Tyco based in Florida, is likely to be hundreds of
millions of dollars less than Motorola's more than $2 billion bid.

Dillon said the award won't necessarily go to the low bidder, only to
the team that presents the "best value."
Most states do not have such systems and those that have created them,
such as Pennsylvania and Florida, have experienced cost-overruns and
delays.

Dillon said the state hoped to learn from such problems and developed
specifications with redundancies and amenities.
"It's a public safety issue. It's an important issue for first
responders and police, but also for the public they serve," he said. "It
has to be the system that works when all else doesn't."

The winning bidder must develop a system that assures radio service
along 95 percent of the roadways of the state.
Tori Dillon, a spokeswoman for M/A-Com, said New York's requirements
were stricter than any the company has faced.
"They had a pretty strong vision," she said.

McFadden said he thinks the state's system will be 10 times more
expensive than those developed in other states.
"They're trying to buy a Bentley," he said.

Motorola's bid, he said, considers the cost of towers, power supplies
and zoning approvals.

The state considered a no-bid "strategic partnership" with Motorola
three years ago. After a news report about the plan, former Comptroller
H. Carl McCall rejected the plan. The state instead developed
specifications and solicited bids.
The network became a higher priority after the terrorist attacks of
Sept. 11, 2001, Dillon said.

He said local law enforcement departments may need to acquire equipment
that will fit into the system. "Some localities have been spending money
on this now.  Those with outdated equipment, we will have to work with
them to insure they can bring themselves up to speed so they can take
advantage of the system," he said.

Dillon said the state will pay for the network from some of the
surcharge cellphone users pay for 911 service.
The winning bidder will be required to set up two centers for
round-the-clock monitoring of the system within the state and to locate
its project management office in the Capital Region, Dillon said. The
system could take five or more years to set up.

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=243788&category=STATE&newsdate=4/30/2004

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