UPDATE - End of Reimbursements:
Effective April 17, no further rebanding reimbursements will be processed for
the Illinois StarCom21 Radio Rebanding project. ILEAS coordinated 23 programming
sessions statewide from August 2008 through February 2009. ILEAS is aware of the
non-compliant agency that failed to participate in the radio rebanding or did
not reband all of the StarCom21 radios agencies possess. The StarCom21 radio(s)
received from the Illinois Terrorism Task Force (ITTF) that have not been
rebanded will soon be inoperable due the pending changes to the network. It
should be noted that non-compliant agencies received multiple written notices
regarding the rebanding project.
As a result, all non-compliant agencies must return to the Illinois Law
Enforcement Alarm System (ILEAS) by April 30, 2009, the StarCom21 radio(s)
previously issued.
The ITTF adopted a policy requiring the return of any radios distributed by
ITTF, MABAS, ILEAS and IESMA utilizing ITTF funding that is NOT rebanded by the
end of rebanding project. To assist your agency in shipping the radio at no
cost, please contact the ILEAS office at (217) 328-3800 to request a FedEx
shipping label. Pack the radio in an appropriate mailing container and affix the
prepaid label and pouch to the top in plain view. Please use your local FedEx
vendor to perform the delivery. All agencies failing to return radios will be
contacted by ILEAS field support specialists who will retrieve the ITTF
Starcom21 equipment
If you have any rebanding questions, please send them to Jeff Regan, ILEAS
Special Projects Coordinator,
jmregan@ileas.org.
About the Illinois Radio Rebanding Project:
In July of 2004, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ordered the
reconfiguration of the 800 MHz band to migrate incompatible systems to separate
sections of the bandwidth. The FCC is requiring Sprint/Nextel to pay all
reasonable relocation costs incurred by public safety agencies. This
“re-programming” (also know as “rebanding”) of radios was to take place prior to
June 26, 2008 – but extensions have been granted. For more background on the
rebanding effort, try this
FCC link, the Transition
Administrator Link, or the
Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) link.
The impact on this FCC order in Illinois is widespread and significant.
All StarCom21 radios must be physically reprogrammed at least once.
There are basically 3 groups of StarCom21 subscribers:
1. State agencies such as the Illinois State Police, Dept. of Corrections,
Secretary of State, Natural Resources, etc.
2. Local agencies that purchased StarCom21 radios and systems on their own such
as McLean and St. Clair Counties (note that this includes all ITTF radios in St.
Clair County).
3. Radios purchased by the Illinois Terrorism Task Force (
ITTF)
with Federal funds and distributed to local agencies and universities/colleges
from 2004 through 2008.
The Illinois Department of Central Management Services (
CMS)
is the state agency overseeing the entire rebanding process for all these
groups. Motorola has been contracted to do the actual technical rebanding and
reprogramming work. The Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System (
ILEAS)
has been contracted to support the rebanding project by overseeing the rebanding
of the StarCom21 radios issued to local agencies by ITTF. There are
approximately 2,900 radios owned by 2,000 different local organizations that
ILEAS must coordinate.
It should be noted that every agency that brings a StarCom21 radio in to be
rebanded, will
receive between
$88.18 and $119.70 per
radio (depending on radio model #) from ILEAS.
You will get paid to get your radios rebanded!
There will be multiple opportunities to get the reprogramming done and you will
receive multiple notices reminding you. But at some point, if you do NOT
reprogram your StarCom, it will no longer work and ITTF will probably ask for it
to be returned.
If you have additional questions,
please review the Frequently Asked
Questions (FAQs)
page.
You can also read more about the program from
this letter from ILEAS, MABAS, IESMA, and ITTF signed.
You can find more information about the StarCom21 radio project at the
ILEAS website.
Statewide Rebanding Locations:
How to use this map: This is a statewide map of
locations where your StarCom21 radios will be rebanded. As you proceed
with scheduling your radios for rebanding, this map will be replaced
with a dynamic map detailing each of the locations currently marked.
You will need to select one of these locations to take your radios for
rebanding.
Green dots represent rebanding locations that have expired.
Red dots represent the current or next rebanding location.
Blue dots represent future rebanding locations.
Rebanding Progress:
The following graphs represent up to the minute progress on the
Illinois Radio Rebanding Project:
Number of radios rebanded:
Purchase Order Progress:
Agency Reimbursement Progress:
