The national radio network for fire and rescue services will also be rolled out to brigades in Scotland.

The £350m Firelink contract for England and Wales was signed with supplier O2 Airwave in March after significant delays. It will now also include Scottish services, with costs shared between the three countries.

'Firelink will replace a patchwork of ageing systems with a modern, digital system that will enable fire and rescue services to communicate with each other and with the other emergency services - locally, regionally and nationally,' said Scottish justice minister Cathy Jamieson.

' Firelink will improve the ability of fire and rescue services to respond to all kinds of emergencies - ranging from major catastrophes requiring a coordinated response by a number of services, to smaller scale incidents which represent the service's main day to day business,' she said.

Specification changes and internal reorganisation at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister caused considerable delays to a project originally scheduled to be contracted in July 2004 and rolled out by 2005. O2 Airwave and rival bidder, French defence contractor EADS, were competing for the deal for more than six years.

The tetra-based Airwave radio system will now be rolled out to brigades in Scotlandby 2009.

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