Interoperable Radio Communications

Public Safety Communications is responsible for maintaining and operating the County’s state of the art P-25, standards-based digital trunked radio. This network is the primary voice network for all of Prince George’s County’s Public Safety first responders as well as other County Public Service agencies.

The County's new Motorola P25 compliant, TDMA radio communication system supports Prince George’s County’s public safety agencies. The network also supports 32 other government agencies within the County and throughout the region. This includes 23 Municipal Law Enforcement Agencies and the County School System. The primary frequency band for this system is the 700 MHz Public Safety spectrum, but also includes several 800 MHz resources to support interoperability with agencies and first responders that fall outside of the immediate region. Prince George’s County works very closely with its partners and neighbors in the National Capital Region and the Baltimore and Southern Maryland areas. This partnership provides seamless radio communication for our First Responders.

The County’s radio communication network is comprised of 21 radio tower sites that include emergency backup power systems that keep the site operating in the case of commercial power outages. The system is connected through a 6 GHz digital microwave system utilizing SONET technology, supplemented by the County’s fiber optic infrastructure. In addition to voice services, this network also provides data services to some public safety agencies using status messaging, CAD interfaces, and AVL services.

Availability of the system is the first priority and is ensured by a comprehensive Motorola maintenance plan that includes thorough preventive measures as well as upgrade and enhancement planning. As a result, the radio system’s availability far exceeds the industry standard of 99.999% which allows only 5 minutes of interruption per year. There are over 10,000 Prince George’s county two-way radios on the radio communication network. The radio system also supports additional units that can operate on the system by our neighboring partners. Within a 1 year period, the Motorola radio communication system network processed over 34,000 Push-To-Talk requests. This large number equates to 200 million seconds of airtime. This would be the equivalent to a single conversation that lasted continuously for over 6 years!