Home / Press Releases Archive / 2015 Press Releases

FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA, November 2, 2015 —The City of Edmonton, Canada has awarded Federal Engineering, Inc. (FE) a contract to assess the best approach for extended radio system coverage for the police service in anticipation of migration to the Alberta First Responders Radio Communications System (AFRRCS).

Mr. Ronald F. Bosco, FE’s President, provided an overview of the Edmonton project: “In 1995, the City of Edmonton began operating its Public Safety Radio System (PSRS). This radio communications system was implemented to meet the radio communications needs of the police service and the Emergency Response Department. In 2003, three City of Edmonton “public service” departments joined and the system became known as the Public Safety and Public Service Radio System (PSPSRS). Oversight and governance of the radio system provided by the PSPSRS Management Committee, which has representation from most of the larger user groups. There are approximately 6,200 users on the system. It provides coverage to the downtown core and a radius of 10 kilometers outside the City boundary. The current system has performed well over the years but is now in the end of life phase.”

Mr. Bosco continued: “In March of 2011, the Alberta Solicitor General and Public Security (now Alberta Justice and Solicitor General) announced the construction of the AFRRCS. AFRRCS will provide public safety first responder and public service agencies with a common province-wide radio network infrastructure. AFRRCS, an open standards radio system based on P25 standards and operating primarily on the 700 MHz Public Safety band, will provide push-to-talk communications and messaging capability. AFRRCS is being built out in stages according to provincial census divisions and should be available in Edmonton by late 2015. Participation is voluntary and first responder agencies can choose when to join. The police service has chosen to join AFRRCS and Federal Engineering will be providing technical support to facilitate the migration to AFRRCS.”

“This project requires the following technical qualifications:

• 10 years of experience in Land Mobile Radio
• Thorough understanding of LMR and wireless technologies including GPS, simulcast, EDACS^®, and P25.
• Experience deploying radio technology for municipal first responders
• Understanding of the radio needs of public safety including police, fire, and ambulance users and public service users such as transit and drainage
• Understanding of the regulatory trends in Canada affecting radio frequency spectrum
• Understanding of operations and trends of municipal and regional governments especially the City of Edmonton, those within the Edmonton region and the Province of Alberta

Federal Engineering’s demonstrated background meets all of these requirements,” concluded Mr. Bosco.

Over the past few years, Federal Engineering has continued its expansion in Canada providing a wide range of consulting services in public safety and public service communications involving LTE as well as traditional VHF, UHF, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz and 4.9GHz mobile radio systems. These services complement FE’s analysis, design, procurement, and implementation support services for NG9-1-1, PSAPs, ECCs, and EOCs. FE also supports FirstNet planning in anticipation of the Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Network. Since 1983, FE has completed thousands of communications projects for 40 state governments, as well as numerous local and federal government clients.

In addition to its public sector work, Federal Engineering provides design and implementation support services for voice, data, and video networks used in the transportation, utilities, aerospace, finance, education, publishing, and computer services industries. FE’s certified independence ensures that clients receive objective, unbiased consulting services that are not influenced by any particular technology, product, vendor, or approach.