AFP - Tender for Radio Upgrade

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cartman
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AFP - Tender for Radio Upgrade

Post by cartman » Sun May 06, 2018 2:25 pm

Trawling through the government tenders and found this April 2018 document for

Upgrade Operational Radio and PTT Communications

Organisation: Federal Government

Location:

Australian Capital Territory,
Tasmania
New South Wales :
Central West, Far West, Hunter, Illawarra, Murray, Mid North Coast, Riverina, New England, Orana, Southern Highlands, Far North Coast, Sydney
Queensland :
Cairns & Far North Queensland, Gladstone, Mackay Whitsunday Region, Mount Isa & North West Region, Rockhampton, South East Queensland, South West & Darling Downs, The Central West, Townsville, Wide Bay Burnett
Victoria :
Barwon South West, Gippsland, Grampians, Hume, Loddon Mallee, Melbourne Metro
Western Australia : Gascoyne, Goldfields/Esperance, Great Southern, Kimberley, Mid West, Peel, Perth Metropolitan, Pilbara, South West, Wheatbelt
South Australia :
Central Region, Eyre Peninsula, Metropolitan, Murray Mallee, Outback, Southern & Hills, South East
Northern Territory :
Alice Springs, Darwin, Katherine, Nhulunbuy

Category: Information & Communication Technology : Radio & Wireless Communication Products
Status: Current
Closing date: 17-06-2018

Further googling found this open public information
https://www.tenders.gov.au/?event=publi ... B1C15BC473

Description:
The Australian Federal Police (AFP), the Australian Government’s primary law enforcement agency, is planning to publish a Request for Tender (RFT) in Q4 FY17/18 for the provision of an Operational Voice Communications solution comprising infrastructure, software, devices and services. This approach to market activity is listed in the AFP’s Annual Procurement Plan (reference: AFP APP 2017-18 006).

Through the planned RFT, the AFP will seek a suitably qualified and experienced service provider to deliver an integrated solution comprising a push-to-talk capability over APCO P25 and commercial carrier networks with associated and appropriate Push-to-Talk (PTT) over LTE devices to support this capability, that is fully integrated with the AFP’s future-state radio network and portable/mobile radio units (also to be delivered as part of the RFT). The solution is for operational requirements within Australia only.

The AFP intends to commence transition to a new solution by Q2 FY18/19 and has an expectation that the service provider can provide radio equipment, including portable/mobile radio units, within a short timeframe following contract execution.

Included in the requirement will be the ability for the AFP to conduct operations when “off net” (i.e. no fixed AFP infrastructure is available and no fixed mobile phone network is available) via deployable capabilities coupled with appropriate back-haul. It is expected the integrated solution will be:

* suitably engineered to provide redundancy and resilience for voice communications;

* provide unified voice communications between P25 handsets, PTT over LTE handsets suitable for use on a commercial carrier network, and the AFP’s Avaya IP PABX; and

* linked with AFP’s Hexagon Infrastructure Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system to support AFP operations.
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news
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Re: AFP - Tender for Radio Upgrade

Post by news » Mon May 07, 2018 1:05 am

Through the planned RFT, the AFP will seek a suitably qualified and experienced service provider to deliver an integrated solution comprising a push-to-talk capability over APCO P25 and commercial carrier networks with associated and appropriate Push-to-Talk (PTT) over LTE devices to support this capability, that is fully integrated with the AFP’s future-state radio network and portable/mobile radio units (also to be delivered as part of the RFT). The solution is for operational requirements within Australia only.\

Simple really, reliable PTT over LTE is a KPI.

There are several systems which are already integrated in to thins along with several other high profile clients

in a nutshell, only companies with proven PTT over Cellular need apply, the rest are wasting their time. d

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rustynswrail
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Re: AFP - Tender for Radio Upgrade

Post by rustynswrail » Mon May 07, 2018 11:26 am

Having a considerable amount to do with POC/PTTOC recently I can say almost without contradiction that it is the future of wide area communications in this country.

The initial setup costs are on average cheaper than an equivalent two way radio network (almost impossible to achieve when you consider mobile phone coverage) with on goings being around $20 per month per terminal.

As to networks, when all things are considered, Telstra is the one and only choice. Their coverage (4G) cannot be equalled, despite to claims of other providers. And yes it is not perfect by any means but it is the best, like it or not.

System features are numerous, it would take too long to go through them all, suffice to say some of the more attractive ones are, real time tracking with very, very good accuracy. Messaging/non voice communications, group or private calling, high level privacy (encryption), wide area low cost communication, low levels of latency and dual functions such as access to PTT or conventional mobile network. Some terminals also feature or will feature two way radios for system redundancy.

Overall large fleet users will find POC/PTTOC a viable proposition to two way radio. The days of large networks are numbered, not totally but to an extent particularly when 5G becomes the norm. Watch this space!
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system_tech
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Re: AFP - Tender for Radio Upgrade

Post by system_tech » Mon May 14, 2018 1:00 pm

I understand that Telstra is developing PTTOC capability, it has been trialled in the past, and a new development may be the change of what is now known as Fleetcoms to PTTOC / 4G in the medium term.

S_T

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cartman
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Re: AFP - Tender for Radio Upgrade

Post by cartman » Mon May 14, 2018 1:16 pm

Does that mean Fleetcoms MPT1327 gets killed off?.... that would free up a truckload of spectrum on VHF and UHF, or is like the others, transitioning from MPT1327 to DMR?
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rustynswrail
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Re: AFP - Tender for Radio Upgrade

Post by rustynswrail » Mon May 14, 2018 3:51 pm

MPT and 800 MHz TETRA (Zeon) in this country are taking their last dying breath. Cost of maintaining both networks is the main impetus behind this.

The move is for certain entrepreneurial types to establish wide area networks and have as many previous stand alone customers migrate across (Orion, Vertel, Metwide etc). PTTOC (depending on the service provider) is going to steal a good deal of those traditional wide area two way customers in the long term. Site specific comms and small users will find little to no advantage in going PTTOC. The conversion to DMR or NXDN or anything else two way is NOT a given especially as PTTOC makes inroads and prices fall within the PTT market. Look at the growth thus far and those traditional two way companies that are now selling PTTOC terminals.

The difference between Telstra's foray into PTT in the past and now is cost. Previously it was expensive and suffered because of network restrictions. This is still the case to an extent with the 3G network PTTOC. When 4G and 5G become more wide spread this will make PTTOC very attractive for the large fleet user because of the features I noted above. Currently prices for access to PTTOC vary from $15 per terminal per month to $35 per terminal per month, depending on brand of equipment, supplier and network. Large fleet operators are able to negotiate attractive deals depending on fleet size and required features such as real time tracking, short messaging etc.

The times they are changing.
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Re: AFP - Tender for Radio Upgrade

Post by citabria » Mon May 14, 2018 6:23 pm

What a time to be alive!

Not only does PTTOC make a huge amount of sense from a business and network carrier perspective, it will also free up lots of second hand toys for HAM radio to use when these FMDA/TDMA style digital two way radio networks are decommissioned!

Scotty
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AFP - Tender for Radio Upgrade

Post by Scotty » Mon May 14, 2018 10:46 pm

It’s surprising what PTTOC type products are already out there - especially the free ones. Zello is one, free to use, aside from data costs from your mobile data provider.

There are even ‘radios’ for sale for $300ish that simply use the mobile network and Zello for wide area comms, essentially anywhere in the world where there is a mobile data (or wifi) signal. Not bad at all.

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freqwaves
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Re: AFP - Tender for Radio Upgrade

Post by freqwaves » Tue May 15, 2018 3:12 pm

Look at companies like Tooo Air.
Australia wide coverage on the 3G network.
Why rent or buy repeaters & infrastructure when someone else has already got the infrastructure in place for you to use.

system_tech
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Re: AFP - Tender for Radio Upgrade

Post by system_tech » Thu May 17, 2018 1:09 pm

cartman wrote:Does that mean Fleetcoms MPT1327 gets killed off?.... that would free up a truckload of spectrum on VHF and UHF, or is like the others, transitioning from MPT1327 to DMR?
I don't think there will be a migration to DMR, NXDN etc.

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