Tait Demonstrates true Seamless Roaming Across LTE and P25 Networks

The New Jersey demonstration, provided for the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office by Tait and local mission-critical communications integrator PMC Associates, successfully showed users’ two-way portable radios seamlessly roaming to available cellular operators whenever the P25 radio signal was compromised, for instance inside shopping malls and other structures.

Current PTT-over-cellular applications (such as Tait’s UnifyVoice) allow increased access to two-way radio communications via a smartphone app, meaning staff members who do not carry portable radios or those outside the mobile radio coverage area can take part in radio communications.

Tait’s Seamless Roaming technologies take this a step further, creating a network of networks that seamlessly identifies the best-available bearer (P25, LTE or WiFi) to connect the user to their mission-critical network.

The Tait solution (US patents pending) is able to integrate with any manufacturers’ system over ISSI, therefore maintaining IDs and encryption end to end. Another key benefit of this solution is that it utilizes the first responder’s smartphone as an alternative to having to purchase high-end LTE-equipped radios.

"The Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office is eager to be working with Tait on this emerging technology,” said Monmouth County Sheriff Shaun Golden. “We currently have a very robust digital radio network throughout Monmouth County. The ability to utilize Tait’s roaming technology by using the existing cellular and WiFi networks for additional communications assures our first responder partners that they can do their jobs without the worry of losing radio communications with our center.”

Matt Crossan, General Manager of PMC Associates, said Tait’s Seamless Roaming solution provides users with a great tool to bridge the gap from P25 to FirstNet LTE. “I’ve never seen anything before that allows the public safety user to press the PTT on their radio and seamlessly access an LTE network – whether that’s FirstNet or a commercial cellular network – when LMR coverage doesn’t exist to transport the call back to their radio core,” he said.

“The user experience doesn’t change. All the roaming across networks happens seamlessly in the background, with no user intervention. In a life-safety situation, public safety professionals tell us all time, ‘I don’t care how the radio works, just that it works; I need to know that the call will go through when I push the button for help.’ And that’s how this works.”