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Nokia in QUADRANT Consortium to Design and Plan a New Digital TETRA Radio System to Britain
October 15, 1997
The British Government has announced its go-ahead to a new national digital radio service for use by all the country’s emergency services, bringing new levels of safety and security to the public. Home Office Minister Alun Michael MP, confirmed that the QUADRANT Consortium - consisting of BT, Nokia, Motorola and TRW - is to commence work on the specification and definition of the new service.
By awarding the Project Definition Study (PDS), QUADRANT will now be allowed to work directly with the emergency services to design and plan the new digital radio service, as part of its service contract bid at the end of 1998.
The Home Office conducted an intensive study, and its recommendations were to go for the TETRA standard for emergency services, because it was the only technology to meet the needs of the public safety community.
TETRA is a European Standard, the widespread adoption of which ensures a multivendor environment allowing these most demanding users to benefit from the resultant economies of scale. In addition it provides more efficient co-ordination for multi-service activities, better informed management and supervisory capability, increased officer safety and greater information flows to users, resulting in improved response times.
The award of the PDS follows twelve months of tough negotiation with PITO, the Home Office department responsible for defining the information technology requirements of the police. Originally some 60 companies responded to the tender, but all bar QUADRANT have now either been eliminated in the selection process or have chosen to withdraw.
Terrestrial Trunked Radio, TETRA, is a new open digital trunked radio standard defined by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to meet the needs of the most demanding professional mobile radio users such as utility and oil companies, railways and authorities. A large group of European user and manufacturer organisations have participated in the definition of the standard. The TETRA Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was established in December 1994, as a forum to represent the interest of all parties in TETRA, including users, manufacturers, operators, test houses and telecom agencies. Today, the TETRA MoU represents 65 companies from 18 countries. According to estimates, TETRA-based systems will have 5 - 10 million users by year 2010.
Nokia has been developing TETRA for almost 10 years and its delivery capability includes complete systems encompassing switching centres, base stations, terminals, network management centres and dispatcher stations. Nokia has delivered its ACTIONET trunked radio systems based upon the open MPT 1327 analogue standard to over 100 customers in more than 30 countries.
Headquartered in Finland, Nokia is a leader in digital technologies including mobile phones, cellular and fixed telecommunications networks, wireless data solutions and multimedia terminals. With sales in approximately 130 countries, net sales totalled FIM 39.3 billion ($8.5 billion) in 1996. Nokia employs more than 34,000 people in 45 countries. Nokia's shares are listed in Helsinki, New York, London, Stockholm, Frankfurt and Paris.
Further information:
Ms. Arja Suominen, Vice President, Communications
Nokia Telecommunications
Tel. (Int.) +358 9 5113 8193
Fax (Int.) + 358 9 5113 8199
Mr. Peter Gill, Business Development Manager
Nokia Telecommunications, UK
Tel. (Int.) +44 1480 444 227
Fax (Int.) +44 1480 444 125
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