Project 25 - Adoption

Adoption

Adoption of these standards has been slowed by budget problems in the US; however, funding for communications upgrades from the Department of Homeland Security usually requires migrating to APCO-25. It is also being used in other countries world wide including Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, India, Singapore and Russia. As of mid-2004 there were 660 networks with P25 deployed in 54 countries. At the same time in 2005 the European Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) was deployed in sixty countries however and it is the preferred choice in Europe, China and other countries. This is largely based on the fact that TETRA systems are many times cheaper than P25 systems ($900 vs $6,000 for a radio). This leads to the situation that almost all P25 networks are based in Northern America where it has the advantage that a P25 system has the same coverage and frequency bandwidth as the earlier analogue systems that were in use so that channels can be easily upgraded one by one. Both P25 and TETRA can offer varying degrees of functionality, depending on available radio spectrum, terrain and project budget.

While interoperability is a major goal of P25, many P25 features present interoperability challenges. In theory, all P25 compliant equipment is interoperable. In practice, interoperable communications isn't achievable without effective governance, standardized operating procedures, effective training and exercises, and inter-jurisdictional coordination. The difficulties inherent in developing P25 networks using features such as digital voice, encryption, or trunking sometimes result in feature-backlash and organizational retreat to minimal "feature-free" P25 implementations which fulfill the letter of any APCO-25 migration requirement without realizing the benefits thereof. Additionally, while not a technical issue per se, frictions often result from the unwieldy bureaucratic inter-agency processes that tend to develop to coordinate interoperability decisions.