In The News: Important Update to Utah's Public Safety Banding

JANUARY 2024 UPDATE: The UCA has delayed the cutover until August – November, 2024.

The Utah Communication Authority (UCA) is upgrading and re-banding its Motorola Solutions public safety trunking system from 800mhz to 700 MHz. The transition to the all-digital 700 MHz P25 system is set to be complete by the end of 2023.

Why is the UCA re-banding?

Motorola has discontinued, or will discontinue in the near future, support for a significant number of the components of the existing 800 trunked radio infrastructure.

Because of this:

• Replacement parts to support the system are becoming increasingly difficult to procure
• Repairs of the system will become more difficult and costs of maintaining the system will rise
• As the 800 system ages, failures will be more common and users may begin to experience frequent and extended communications outages

What are the benefits of this re-band?

The P25 standard has been widely adopted by local, county, tribal, state, and federal agencies. It is also recommended by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

By replacing UCA’s 800 MHz system with a 700 MHz P25 system, Utah’s first responders will operate on the most up-to-date and widespread frequency band.

What does this mean for you?

This transition means that all Emergency Responder Radio Communication Systems (ERRCS) (Bi-Directional Amplifier (BDA)/Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS)) are required to be re-banded to work on the 700 MHz system, or replaced if they are 800 MHz only.

For new construction, if a building: 

• is over 50,000 sq ft
• OR is multiple stories
• OR has a basement,

then you are required to test to see if the building meets requirements. If the building does not meet requirements, then an ERRCS system will need to be installed.

You can read the entire UCA Radio Division Strategic Plan here.

Air Comm is here to help you with the 700 MHz transition. We have extensive experience designing, implementing, and upgrading ERRCSs and will ensure that your system remains operational and code-compliant after the banding shift.

Contact us today for a system evaluation!