2026 Agenda

The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) manages the lower 600 miles of the Texas Colorado River, which provides water to more than 1.4 million people, and is one of the largest public power providers in Texas, supplying power to more than 30 retail electric cooperatives and municipalities. Through LCRA's partnerships, which designed and built the first converged LMR with LTE radios designed to enable cross-network communications from a single device, LCRA can offer a new and expanded level of interoperability between existing LMR and private LTE networks. This interoperability enables robust and reliable MCPTT services providing our customers with the best of both the LTE and LMR worlds in a single device. The new PTT handsets will support both US Band 106 and LMR, supporting technology flexibility and smooth evolution to private LTE. These new PTT handsets optimize both performance and flexibility, enabling utilities to ensure mission critical services to customers. LCRA will also discuss how they are supporting other entities (coops, IOUs, etc.) to provide services which help bolster reliability within the region.

Takeaway

How LCRA achieved single-device PTT across LMR and PLTE: architecture and workflows enabling seamless talkgroup access on both networks from a PTT handset.

Why Band 106 matters for utilities: propagation/indoor penetration benefits at 900 MHz, coverage extension in rural terrain, and ecosystem readiness.

Operational impact: faster incident coordination, fewer radio/device swaps, and clearer comms with contractors, co-ops/munis/IOUs, and mutual-aid partners.

Migration without risk: keep mission-critical voice on LMR while adding LTE for broadband/AI/video; phased cutover plan, device policy, and training.

Reliability & security fundamentals: fallback behaviors between LMR/LTE, QoS/priority & preemption for MCPTT, encryption, and redundancy design.