At an unprecedented gathering earlier this month, a number of prominent specialized mobile radio equipment suppliers temporarily set aside competitive interests to draft a historic action plan. Their goal: selecting a single enhanced analog standard for the SMR industry.
“It is absolutely critical that this happens in our industry,” said Rick Stafford, managing director of Wireless Professional Communication Service Inc., a wholesale distributor owned and operated by and for 300 independent wireless operators and host of the June 12 forum, held in St. Louis.
“With the adoption of an advanced analog protocol, we can have many of the same benefits as digital without digital’s inherent technical problems and costs,” Stafford said.
National managers and engineers from Ericsson Inc., Motorola Inc., Zetron Inc., Trident Micro Systems, Kenwood Communications Corp., Standard Communications Corp., E.F. Johnson Co., Uniden Private Radio Communications, Unique Technologies Inc., Monterey Telecommunications Technology, Smartlink Development L.P., Maxon America Inc., IDA Corp. and Ritron Inc. attended the forum.
Stafford opened the meeting by re-emphasizing the critical need for suppliers to cooperate, as they had in the past, with the Global System for Mobile communications and MPT 1327 protocols. “It is impossible to facilitate networks of independents if we are speaking different languages,” Stafford said. “With one advanced analog standard, we are figuring that we have at least five to seven more good years [of operating] left for analog.
“Our industry simply cannot afford to be fractured any further,” Stafford told RCR. “At this historic meeting, we made excellent progress and were able to come up with a step-by-step action plan that ultimately will lead, later this summer, to the industry-wide adoption of a single protocol.”
All of the suppliers “appreciated this meeting,” said Stafford. “They share the same urgency that independent operators have for a common advanced analog protocol and each has pledged to cooperate in the decision-making process.”
At this point in the process, Stafford said there are “three protocol finalists in the running for ultimate adoption: Uniden’s ESAS, E.F. Johnson’s LTR Net, and Trident’s Passport.”
All three standards are compatible with existing LTR-the current de facto standard for SMR-and at the forum, representatives from the three companies gave presentations updating progress in developing their respective protocols.
Stafford said a final decision on adoption of a single protocol “should come by August.”
