Cassidian to develop TETRA pager for firefighters, rescue forces and relief organisations in Hessen

Cassidian has been awarded the first contract for paging within the new German public safety authorities' digital radio network (BOSNet). The company signed a contract with the Hessian Ministry of the Interior and for Sport to develop and supply a pocket-size TETRA pager for German Security Authorities and Organisations (BOS) in the state of Hessen. Cassidian’s TETRA pager will be the first product of this kind on the market which fully complies with the respective interoperability requirements for the digital radio network of the German Federal Agency for Digital Radio of Security Authorities and Organisations (BDBOS). Pager deliveries will start at the end of 2014.

More than 50,000 professional and volunteer firefighters and other rescue and relief forces in Hessen will be equipped with the new terminal from Cassidian. Cassidian’s pager fully meets the standardised technical requirements of German BOS regarding alerts and security. It allows corresponding control centres to inform dedicated operational units in case of an emergency.

In contrast to existing analog devices, Cassidian’s TETRA pager enables secure two-way communication between the control centre and the operational units. After receiving an alert from the operation control system, the user can provide a direct response, stating whether he or she is currently available for deployment. This new type of alert allows for significantly improved resource management in cases of emergency.

In addition to the terminal device, Cassidian will also provide its Taqto® intelligent terminal management solution. Taqto® will act as a terminal asset management system and will enable the BOS organisations involved to keep a record of all devices in the field, including their parameter configurations. Furthermore, Taqto® supports remote firmware updates to the pager via the Internet through secured connections and will thus significantly facilitate the administration of the pager fleet in the field

The pager frame contract is the first contract of this kind for alerting resources via the German BOSNet. It enables new services and advanced tactical communication to be introduced to the BOS organisations in the state of Hessen.

“We are pleased to have been awarded this contract in Hessen,” said Markus Kolland, Head of Cassidian Communications GmbH. “It is a further testimonial from our customers of Cassidian’s experience and expertise in TETRA technology. We look forward to offering a brand new product on the market that can help to gain time and save lives in the most critical emergency situations.”

Source: Cassidian