Initial Funding and Project Timeline
Phase I included equipment upgrades to the ten tower sites located in these 17 counties in Southeast Kansas. Upgrades resulted in interoperability among users of these towers. This phase was operational by July 2006.

Phase II, Group A includes equipment upgrades to the thirteen tower sites located in the following counties, of which most encompass the Kansas Turnpike. This portion of the Phase II was operational by July 2007.

Phase II, Group B will include equipment upgrades to seven tower sites located mostly in Northeast Kansas in the following counties. This portion of Phase II was operational by July 2008.

Phase II, Group C will include equipment upgrades to seven tower sites in South Central Kansas located in the following counties. This portion of Phase II was operational by July 2008.

Funding for fully completing the Statewide InterOperable Communications System has not been identified. The State of Kansas has been seeking more federal funds to help with this effort. As funding becomes available, additional regions of the state will be upgraded until the statewide system is completely interoperable.

Project Description and Benefits
Implementing the Statewide InterOperable Communications System involves switching from a conventional 800 MHz analog radio system to an Astro P25 SmartZone digital trunking system. One of the benefits of the SmartZone trunked system is wide area coverage. Radio users no longer have to switch the knob on the radio to go to a different tower location, the radio will automatically switch to whichever tower is emitting the strongest signal.

One of the features of a trunked system is the use of talkgroups. By using talkgroups, multiple agencies can utilize the system while using less resources than the conventional system. The repeaters at each site are capable of handling multiple users simultaneously. Users within an agency have the ability to talk to other agency users from different tower sites across the state because they will be in the same talkgroup. KDOT communcations staff works with the individual agencies to establish their talkgroups and program the radios.

Through the use of event channels and mutual aid channels, radios users from different agencies that do not have established daily communications can now talk to each other. This enables interoperability.