The £350m national radio network for the fire service has missed its first deadline and supplier O2 Airwave may be fined.

The contract for the tetra-based Firelink system was finally signed in March last year, almost two years later than first planned.

And according to a regional management board report from Yorkshire and Humberside Fire Authority, implementation is already behind schedule.

‘O2 Airwave missed the first milestone of the contract and is now subject to liquidated damages,’ says the report seen by Computing.

But insiders in the fire service say the early deadlines are focused on documentation and design and delays are not yet a cause for concern.

‘At the start of a big contract you want to get the detail right before you move to rolling the system out,’ said a source close to the programme.

The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), which is responsible for Firelink, says it has extended the timetable for the early phase of the programme.

‘The preliminary phase has been extended to allow O2 Airwave additional time to provide the depth of information required, and for the government and the Fire and Rescue Services to be assured the proposed solution will meet the contractual need,’ said a DCLG spokesman.

‘As with most large government projects, the Firelink contract has a range of remedies built into it to protect the public purse should the supplier fail to deliver. Liquidated damages are one such remedy, and the government is considering its options,’ he said.

Installation of Firelink equipment will not start until the preliminary phase is successfully completed, but Airwave is going ahead with network upgrades to provide the improved resilience the programme requires.

Under the original plan the Firelink deal was set to be signed in July 2004 and rolled out nationally by 2005. The current schedule is for the network to be completed in 2008.

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