Toowoomba Regional Council Picks Simoco Wireless and Telstra for a Mission Critical Communications Solution
Having mission critical communications in regions like Toowoomba is essential for the successful operation of businesses as well as for the safety of its people.
The digital radio solution that Simoco have built for Toowoomba Regional Council compliments Telstra’s 4G and 5G offering by providing an always on, mission critical digital radio network to provide voice and data services covering over 90% of the Toowoomba region.
The new solution will now further streamline communication processes to improve the councils operation but more importantly provide enhanced worker safety, assist in the coordination of local disaster management and maintain critical assets. The system has also been developed as a platform that can support future innovation to the council and wider community.
The features on launch will include mission critical enhanced voice functionality allowing targeted communications to the right people and the right groups to improve operational efficiency, and enhanced worker safety features such as duress alarms and targeted workforce location for improved rapid response and disaster management.
The digital radio system provides a platform for long-term future technology growth and now the system is live Simoco will be delivering further applications and functions to the network and in particular, a new product that will really bridge the gap between the narrow band and broadband services. Future features will include asset management of critical assets, data features such as telemetry and telematics and improved mobility for extending coverage of the LTE networks.
Mike Norfield, Simoco Wireless Solution’s Group CEO said “The system that Toowoomba Regional council has implemented is a very advanced digital radio network and technology has changed over the last number of years as we see 4G/5G coming into the horizon. We partner with Telstra to compliment the 4G/5G network by providing Toowoomba a mission critical dedicated network. We cover 90% of the Toowoomba region with 10 sites and it is economical for us to provide that coverage by utilising a lower frequency band which allows us to get further with the antenna masts and the use of higher powered devices. It allows us to provide mission critical voice and data communications for the workforce."
Toowoomba Regional Council Mayor Paul Antonio said “Now we have one system, it’s all connected together, it covers 90% of our coverage area, it covers 600 vehicles that we have so it means safety but it means we’re well prepared for the kind of events we had in 2011 in a way that we were never prepared before”.
With the system now live, Simoco look forward to working with Toowoomba Regional Council and Telstra to ensure the system delivers the reliability and resilience for many years ahead. Our partnership with Telstra is extremely important to Simoco and we look forward to building more of these mission critical networks in the future.
Andy Penn, Telstra CEO said “The new digital hi-band VHF radio system will take the coverage within the 13,000km coverage up to greater than 90% from 65%-70% today”.
