UK govt considers commercial networks for emergency calls

The UK government is planning to use commercial mobile phone networks to handle calls by the emergency services, reports The Guardian. This had led to concern that the proposals could put lives at risk by forcing the emergency services to share airwaves with the public. The government has its own Tetra network for emergency services and army staff, operated by Airwave. However, it faces a high bill to upgrade the network for use with superfast 4G devices. The Home Office plans to advertise for a new service provider, with a call for bidders expected in April. This could see Airwave's GBP 400 million a year in in publicly-funded contracts transferred to a commercial network from 2016.

Please, click here to read the origional article in The Guardian.