Responsibilities for maintaining and administering the Wisconsin Interoperable System for Communications (WISCOM) are shared between the Department of Military Affairs – Office of Emergency Communications (DMA-OEC), and the Department of Transportation – Bureau of Network Engineering and Data Infrastructure (DOT-BNEDI).

WISCOM is a shared statewide, interoperable, land mobile radio public safety communications system. Local, county, tribal, state, and federal first responders/public safety officials as well as private EMS organizations across the state use WISCOM to communicate for their daily mission, during a major disaster, or a large-scale incident or planned event. While home rule in Wisconsin allows for local control of communications networks, WISCOM allows for connectivity of those networks and also provides an option for statewide interoperability. The final result is a resilient and redundant communications network that can support local needs, major disasters, or large-scale incidents and events.

WISCOM is a VHF (Very High Frequency) digital trunked P25, radio system compromised of 150 RF sites. WISCOM also includes some 800 MHz resources in major metropolitan areas of the State. It currently supports over 52,000 subscriber radios providing mission critical voice communications to over 900 local, county, tribal, state, and federal public safety agencies. It additionally supports private air medical and  EMS organizations statewide. The network was designed to support 95% mobile coverage to its users across the state; however daily use agencies who joined have enhanced portable coverage by providing additional sites in their area.

At its inception, and to date, WISCOM has leveraged existing radio towers and infrastructure to reduce costs and avoid usage fees for most users. The system is P25 compliant, supports subscriber units across vendors, and works with the wide variety of local systems currently operating in the state. It also shares a statewide infrastructure that results in long-term cost-savings for everyone. As communities replace and augment their local systems, they are able to leverage the WISCOM network, sharing infrastructure costs and avoiding costly duplication of equipment.