NSW emergency comms overhaul gets another $320m

IT News published that the Australian NSW government has more than doubled last year’s investment in the build of a single statewide radio network for emergency services agencies, earmarking $320 million for the next phase of the program. In state budget papers, the government revealed it would spend the new funding on the next phase of the rollout of a single solution for the state’s police, emergency services and essential services agencies. The solution is expected to consolidate 70 emergency services communications networks into one in an effort to remove the inefficiencies that stem from operating seperate and overlapping networks. The government allocated $178 million towards the critical communication enhancement program (CCEP) in last year’s budget, marking the official start for the deployment of the single government radio network. That funding was to be used by the NSW Telco Authority to begin the rollout of the solution on the north coast of NSW, after an initial pilot integrating 10 existing networks across 25 sites, which ran until January 2017.

The Australian government has now handed an additional $236 million to the NSW Telco Authority over the next four years, $100 million of which will be spent in 2018.

https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nsw-emergency-comms-overhaul-gets-another-320m-494513