P25 is touted as an interoperability standard. It’s really a technical standard that doesn’t preclude interoperability. What it does do is make more efficient usage of the limited RF spectrum.

I’ve been dealing with interoperability issues since the late 70s when I first became a part of Project FIRESCOPE. We’re still dealing with the same primary challenges in the interoperability area – human factors. Until everybody embraces ICS and NIMS and actually follows it (instead of simple lip service, saying “we’ll use it when the big one hits”, continuing to use radio codes instead of clear text, etc., we’ll never achieve interoperability. Instead, we’ll continue to demonstrate that interoperability isn’t nearly as important as continuing to do business the way we always have, despite an overwhelming preponderance of evidence proving that there IS a better way. I have several posts on this topic on my blog at http://www.wingineering.com.

This is a huge issue, and the public safety community must face up to it, genuinely adopt all the tenets and practices of ICS and clear text, and understand the genuine greater good for ourselves and others that come from it.

Technology or the lack thereof is not now and has never truly been the impediment to interoperability.