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London Borough of Brent ahead of the game with O2 Airwave
Rob Walley, Emergency Planning Coordinator, London Borough of Brent discusses why it was important to sign up to the Airwave Service...
The recent Home Office report on 7/7 highlighted weaknesses in telecommunications systems – in particular with commercial mobile radio networks – as the greatest problem in the emergency response to the attacks. The report went on to call for a swift introduction of the next-generation digital radio network, the Airwave service.
The London Borough of Brent is ahead of the game. They are already using the Airwave service. Rob Walley, one of their Emergency Planning Co-ordinators, explained, “Our business case for signing up for the Airwave service was based on two main factors.
“Our number one requirement was that any new mobile communications solution had to be more robust than commercial mobile networks, upon which we were over reliant. The second driver was the potential for interoperability with other public safety agencies.
“With that in mind, we reasoned that if the Airwave service ticked all our boxes, and if, as promised, the public safety community would eventually sign up for it anyway, it made sense to get it sooner rather than later.
“Even so, we didn’t rush into things. We did our homework with O2 Airwave, with a couple of other London boroughs who were already using the Airwave service and with the Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO).
“Everything checked out and O2 Airwave advised us that the best solution for our situation would be Airwave Direct – a fully managed service that includes network connectivity, call allowances, radios and radio maintenance, with next day replacement of faulty units.
“We then obtained our TEA2 licence from PITO, which is essentially permission to become O2 Airwave customers and connect to the Airwave network. If we were applying for that same consent today, we would have had to go through Ofcom, the telecommunications regulator, as licensing responsibility has passed to them.”
Implementation
Explaining further about the implementation, Walley said, “We opted for a considered approach to implementation, because we first wanted to decide how we could best configure Airwave Direct for our people, train them in its use and roll it out to them.
“Our three emergency planning co-ordinators now each carry an Airwave service radio when on duty. In an emergency, they would be alerted to a major incident by an officer in our control room, who also has an Airwave service radio.
“The Chief Executive has an Airwave service radio available to him, and our two Local Authority Liaison Officers (LALOs) will soon have them too. We also have plans for other council teams to use pooled Airwave service radios, starting with our Public Safety team.
“A major benefit of the Airwave service is the total operational flexibility it provides. We’ve configured it for use by key personnel who may need access to interoperable and resilient communcations. For example, our emergency planning co-ordinators can communicate with each other. When required they will also be able to communicate with our LALOs. Similarly, our LALOs will be able to communicate with each other, etc, etc. So that’s the basic set up for you.
“Regarding interoperability we are working with local Metropolitan Police Integrated Borough Operations room, to enable us to share the same technology and understanding of each other’s organisation.
“From my perspective, the actual interworking with the Met should in principle be slightly more straightforward to achieve than with the other two emergency services as we already regularly deal with them at a borough level rather than as part of a pan-London arrangement.”
Brent Council is involved in contingency planning for the Wembley National Stadium and expects that Airwave service communications will extend to use within and around this important venue. He comments, “The stadium’s owning body has convened a radio group to ascertain what mobile radio communications systems will be used on event days. The Airwave service will be one system used by Brent Council with the emergency services.
“Finally, with regard to the quality of our mobile radio service and our relationship with O2 Airwave, we did have some teething problems at the outset, mostly because Airwave Direct was a brand new offering at the time we signed up for it. However, any problems were resolved quickly and we remain impressed by the positive, can-do attitude of the entire O2 Airwave team.”
