Oct/Nov 2008

TETRA digital wireless communications could be poised for a comeback in the UK's commercial market, having become mainly the preserve of the emergency services in recent years.

Arqiva, a company with a complex history in the broadcast media transmission business, has launched an initiative to market TETRA communications to new UK market sectors, including commercial businesses and local government organisations.

Underpinning the initiative is a deal struck by the company with Danish TETRA hardware specialist DAMM, under which DAMM's TetraFlex base stations and handheld terminals will be offered to users here.

Arqiva says it aims to be become 'a single point of contact' for organisations interested in TETRA solutions. It says the technology is ideal for users wanting to make the transition from legacy analogue radio, and in some cases will also suit existing GSM users.

 

TETRA is a two-way full duplex radio voice and messaging service, combining many of the benefits of mobile phones and private mobile radio. Advantages claimed for the technology include high-quality transmission, dedicated one-to-one, one-to-many and short data messaging communication, and encryption to deal with security issues.

Arqiva says its new service will combine hardware with what it terms 'available spectrum'. This is understood to include spectrum access in the 412 to 414 MHz and 422 to 424 MHz wavebands.

The name stands for 'terrestrial trunked radio'. The technology is widely used across the world, having replaced analogue PMR in many cases, but early UK contenders struggled to make market inroads in the commercial market – not helped by adverse publicity about alleged harmful effects that might arise from poor implementation of the infrastructure. One of the last big contenders in the commercial market, Dolphin, closed its doors four years ago. But since then widespread adoption by the UK's public authorities has revived the fortunes of the technology.

Arqiva is owned by a consortium headed by Australian conglomerate Macquarie Communications, which is also a major stakeholder in Airwave, the business that supplies TETRA communications to the UK's emergency services. However, there is no explicit reference in Arqiva's announcement to the Airwave business. The Arqiva scheme is being promoted as a stand-alone system.

Arqiva provides transmission services for all the UK's terrestrial TV networks. Its lineage goes back to NTL and the BBC's broadcast transmission division.