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The trials and tribulations of a frustrated comms engineer, part 2: Where do we go from here?

Published: 
13 February, 2012

I was looking at the 999 service provided by BT and thinking: is this still going to be fit for purpose in 10 years time?

The reason I ask this is two-fold.

Firstly, many new C&C and ICCS systems being ordered over the next few years and they are typically based on the traditional equipment we know and trust.

However, due to the market being distorted by major government projects many of the traditional players have not been keeping up with new developments.

The question is: how will today’s 10-year-old school boy/girl communicate with the emergency services in 10 years’ time (which is the sort of life expectancy from a major ICCS/C&C system purchased today)?

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The trials and tribulations of a frustrated comms engineer, part 1: Where have all the engineers gone?

Published: 
09 February, 2012

In my brigade we currently have the opportunity to look at new fire-ground radio systems. Why should this be a problem, and why can’t we use Airwave (it’s good)? Two points, first is cost and second is congestion.

So what is the cost of a handheld terminal? Well we have about 350 handheld units give or take the odd 50, and based on the current price this would work out at just over £500,000 + call charges. Tell you what, let’s just forget about the issue of congestion.

I could have a complete digital radio system installed across the county with mobiles for around the £650,000 price tag.

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