Statewide Paging Network Receives $146 Million Investment from NSW Government in Australia

The investment is being given to the NSW Telco Authority with the intention of "improving the efficiency and effectiveness of frontline workers when responding to fires and other crises."

The construction of a centralized, mission-critical emergency services paging network across the state has been given $145.7 million by the NSW government in today's state budget.

The investment is being given to the NSW Telco Authority with the intention of "improving the efficiency and effectiveness of frontline workers when responding to fires and other crises."

According to the government, the improvements will "streamline asset utilization, improve accountability of performance, and improve customer service, addressing problems with an ageing network."

Additionally, "problems originating from the purchase of critical network elements by multiple government entities" will be resolved by the initiative.

The investment, according to the government, "conforms to the recommendations of the 2019–20 NSW bushfire inquiry and Royal Commission into Natural Disaster Arrangements 2020,"

It stated that these papers "recognized the negative effects of mobile communications disruptions, and the necessity for straightforward means of communicating during fire and other crises."

In order to "lower construction costs... and speed the implementation," the NSW Telco Authority is anticipated to take use of ongoing work under the Critical Communications Enhancement Program (CCEP).

The CCEP is replacing the 70 different emergency service agency radio networks currently used by the government with a single, state-wide radio network. It was initially financed in 2016.