President of British APCO believes in the migration from TETRA to LTE for voice

In a Q&A session with Bapcojournal, the President of Britisch APCO states that she believes in the migration from TETRA to LTE for voice.

According to Sue Lampard: "Our members should be aware of the potential risks and issues around the migration from TETRA to 4G/LTE. We fully believe it’s the right way forward for public safety and that the UK is likely to be a world leader – as was the case with the TETRA network – in this respect. However, people need to understand the issues and make sure they are asking the right questions to ensure the user requirements are appropriately delivered. We don’t want any lesser service than we’ve been used to – and moving forward the 4G/LTE solution can only improve things."

Furthermore, Lampard believes in the longer-term to release some spectrum in the 700Mhz band. This is useful as it provides good coverage both geographically and in-building (something TETRA was less able to do as it worked in a lower frequency band). 

Sue Lampard served 31 years as a police officer in Surrey, reaching the rank of Superintendent before retiring in July 2013. Much of her police career was spent in the control room/call handling environment so has worked at all levels from operator to head of department. She chairs the Telecommunications Sub Group (TSG) for the Surrey Local Resilience Forum which has further enhanced her knowledge and involvement with public safety communications.

Through her work with BAPCO, Sue spends a lot of time focusing on three areas; Next Generation 999 technology, Multi-Agency (electronic) Information Transfer, and ESMCP (the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme to replace the Tetra system). She believes that ultimately the three areas should be seamlessly integrated through new technological approaches.