The Metropolitan Police Service Chooses FREQUENTIS to Prepare MPS for Adoption of the Emergency Services Network
On 21 December 2015, the MPS in partnership with the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) have signed a contract with Frequentis which will lead the way in ensuring the MPS is ready to adopt the ESN system & transition between mid 2017 and 2020.
Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has now moved a step closer to joining the Home Office Emergency Services Network (ESN) with a contract award to Frequentis that ensures the MPS control rooms across London can manage ESN calls from the start of the national transition in mid 2017.
The Home Office Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) is responsible for replacing the current communications network across the UK with a next generation communications system that will provide coverage for all three emergency services (police, fire, and ambulance) and other public safety users. ESN will provide critical voice and broadband data services with appropriate coverage, public safety functionality as well as appropriate security, resilience and availability.
Commander David Musker, Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) Lead at the MPS, commented: “The Emergency Services Network promises new capability, particularly in the area of data transfer, and therefore has the capacity to support positive business change and deliver new or improved services in support of the MPS’s Total Policing vision. This first step in the MPS’s wider adoption of ESN places us in the vanguard of users addressing control room readiness and we look forward to working collaboratively with Frequentis towards a successful project delivery".
ESN’s use of LTE presents many opportunities to improve the business process to make every second count. Frequentis is committed to working with its customers to exploit ESN to realise the best possible return on investment, enhance officer safety and increase the public’s confidence. Commenting on the new contract award, Robert Nitsch, Director of Public Safety for Frequentis, said: “The world’s emergency services are increasingly looking to LTE as their next step in the provision of mission-critical communications. The UK ESN is the first large-scale implementation worldwide of this type of solution and we are proud to be an integral part of supporting The Metropolitan Police Service in its provision of excellent critical control room services.”
Frequentis will modify MPS’s existing Integrated Communication and Control System (ICCS), which was originally procured from Frequentis in 2005 and has been fully operational since early 2007. This will be achieved, in part through the introduction of its Unified Trunked Radio Gateway, which was successfully implemented in support of the Bavarian G7 Summit in June 2015 and will soon be at the heart of the MPS’s dispatch environment handling in excess of 5 million radio calls per month. Once deployed, MPS users will be able to operate freely on both, the current system and ESN, within coverage areas throughout the period of transition. It will also provide seamless integration with the existing CCTV and APLS functionalities without the need for additional training for operators.
