The Alamo Area Regional Radio System (AARRS) was completed for public service security. The system was developed by CPS Energy and Mission Critical Partners (MCP). The land mobile radio (LMR) system is designed to replace three legacy LMR systems that had become obsolete.
Two of the legacy systems were owned by the city and used by its police and fire departments and the sheriff’s office, county fire departments and smaller public safety agencies within the county. The legacy systems all suffered from similar issues, with the most significant including:
- Inadequate coverage, including the ability of field personnel to access the system regardless of where they were located.
- Inadequate capacity, including the ability of field responders to access the system simultaneously whenever it was necessary.
- Inadequate reliability, which largely is a function of the legacy systems reaching end of life.
Seventeen new tower sites were built, bringing the total to 28, which increased the coverage footprint. All agencies now are on the same system, which delivers interoperable communications without needing patches.
