Clockwork. Flawless. Seamless.

That's how the governor's office is describing the first test of UWIN, an integrated communications network that lets the state's first responders talk to each other during an emergency, regardless of what kind of communications mechanism they have.

UWIN — the acronym for Utah's Wireless Integrated Network — was the first major initiative announced by Gov. Olene Walker when she took office last November. At the time, she said it was an important step for Utah because it would bridge the communication gap between agencies at the state, federal and local level during an emergency. She called for the first phase of the project, a voice communications system, to be up and running by July 2004.

After a June 13-17 test run, UWIN went on line across most of Utah July 1, said Camille Anthony, executive director of the governor's Department of Administrative Services.

In the exercise, a Fillmore area power plant was the alleged target of a terrorist group, Utah National Guard Lt. Col. Bart D. Barry said. In practice, as it would occur in real life, the plant's security team alerted local law enforcement, which in turn alerted state public safety officials, the joint terrorism task force and then the Utah National Guard. At each level of analysis, when each agency had tapped out its ability to respond to the threat, the next agency was asked to step in. Each deployed its resources, including a declaration from Walker that activated the National Guard, Barry said.

UWIN worked so well that every agency was able to talk to each other during the exercise, even though they all use different communications systems, he said. Even an unexpected — and real — lightning strike had no effect on communications, he said.

"It was awfully smooth. Time and time again we were able to talk seamlessly between law enforcement, the military and the state, all on different radio systems. It was phenomenal," Barry said. "We had the lightning strike on the system in Fillmore, but it was still seamless to the soldiers and the officers in the field."

In the world of law enforcement and emergency response, that kind of coordination and communication was once only dreamed about, Anthony said.

"All of a sudden technology is at the point where we can do that," she said. Utah uses a technology called OmniLink that builds on the existing communications structures, but then magically erases technological differences and allows those systems to communicate with each other.

Phase one voice technology has cost the state about $4 million, all of it federal homeland security and health department grants, Anthony said.

The second UWIN phase, which centers on integrating database technology, is under way. Anthony said she expects it to be in place in early 2005.

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E-mail: jdobner@desnews.com