Divisions appear in use of Tetra

The UK fire service has announced plans to go it alone in commissioning its next-generation telecoms network.

The move throws into chaos the plans of the Public Safety Radio Communications Service (PSRCS) to deploy a single network serving all of the UK's emergency services.

Potential options could include Tetrapol, a proprietary French standard, as well as Motorola's iDen technology.

At the recent Terrestrial Trunked Radio Communication System (Tetra) congress, a Lancashire Fire Service officer was asked about the likely take-up of the PSRCS Airwave service by other emergency services in the future.

"The officer read a prepared statement to the question that Airwave might be a solution for wide areas, but the fire services cannot take it up without inviting further competition," said Chief Superintendent Alan Pitt, police user assurance co-ordinator at the Police Information Technology Office (Pito).

The Fire Service Inspectorate denied that there was any political machinations involved or that it was taking "a dim view" of Tetra. "We don't favour or disfavour Tetra. Whatever meets the specification and represents value for money will be considered," said Keith Phillips, the Inspectorate's head of technology.

BT Quadrant, which manages the Tetra Airwave project, is doubtful that the fire service will join the network in its entirety.

"We have given up on the fire service being a central, nationalised procurement," said Jeff Parris, general manager at BT Quadrant.

First published in Computing