Associations of Public Safety Communications Officials--International, Inc.
Press Release
August 12, 1997

On Saturday, August 9, 1997 the Project 25 Steering Committee reached another milestone in this process. Several different proposals from eight manufacturers and representatives were evaluated. The result was a unanimous decision to select Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) as the primary suite of technologies for Phase I migration to a 6.25 kHz land mobile radio systems (sic).

The Committee also took action to establish an additional standards development track by unanimously adopting a motion to seek Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) proposals which will provide for equivalent 6.25 kHz channel efficiency and backward interoperability to the Project 25 Phase I suite of standards.

The Committee further voted to approve and sign a cooperative agreement between Project 25 and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute/Trans-European Trunked Radio (ETSI/TETRA). This agreement will provide for the free exchange of Project 25 Standards and those of TETRA and between Project 25 and the European community.

The Steering Committee applauds Motorola, Inc. for their public announcement which clarifies their intellectual Property Rights (IPR) agreement policy. This announcement is consistent with Motorola's previous policies as understood by the Committee.

These actions provide a clear course for the future to all interested manufacturers to proceed with the design of digital communications equipment capable of both voice and data. They are a direct result of a seven-year cooperative effort of the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials-International, Inc. (APCO), the National Association of State Telecommunications Officials (NASTD), the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), and numerous Federal public safety agencies including the National Communications System (NCS), the Department of Treasury, the Department of Justice, the National Security Agency (NSA) and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). It is a welcome follow-up to Project 25 Phase I and will ensure the public safety user community of advanced state-of-the-art equipment capable of interoperability and competitive multi-source procurement.

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