MOTOROLA: The future is bright for TETRA
"the argument for upgrading TETRA networks to TEDS will become more compelling..."
Questions have been raised over the last few years as to how much life the TETRA system still has in it. But it is not a question that troubles Tom Quirke, the recently appointed VP and global lead for TETRA at Motorola Solutions.
‘TETRA is a pretty buoyant market right now,’ he says. ‘What you are seeing is more and more countries and municipalities going over to TETRA. Western Europe has deployed a lot of networks already nationwide. The German market is a very exciting one right now in terms of subscribers and outside of Europe there is plenty of strong business.’
Quirke makes the point that other than Project 25 in the US (where Motorola holds a dominant position), TETRA is a technology that doesn’t have any real rivals.
‘P25 and TETRA are the two public safety technologies for communications that dominate the marketplace and there is still a huge demand for voice,’ he reasons. ‘Voice communications is the predominant way people communicate in mission critical communications.’
Public safety organisations require instantaneous and resilient communication systems that work even when other networks have gone down. ‘These are core requirements,’ says Quirke. ‘So mission critical TETRA networks will still be at the heart of everything for a very, very long time and we can’t see any substitutes coming over the horizon.’
Voice will clearly remain essential, but much of the conversation within public safety these days is about data. Understanding what data can bring is a key issue for public safety organisations. Many are wondering how critical data applications will be and whether it is something they must have.
Quirke believes the take up of data applications will increase as awareness of the benefits grows and dependency rises. The other driver centres on data applications linked directly to the safety of an officer. Customers may deem that kind of data application has to be included on a mission critical network.......
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Source: www.wireless-mag.com
