EE/Airwave replacement

[MysterAitch]

I've been following this on/off but haven't kept up with recent developments with the new UK Emergency Services Network (ESN) over the last six months or so.

Doing some catch-up it sounds like:

- Samsung are to provide upto 250,000 handhelds (no mention of mobile/base?),

- Vodafone has ruffled some feathers in declaring that they plan to turn off existing infrastructure on 31/March/2020 (but have since agreed to supply some interim solution in the case that the ESN gets delayed),

- there have been some reports of masts popping up around the country to bring up coverage (a mixture of being dedicated to ESN use and being open to regular mobile phone customers), and

- it also sounds like initial tests/trials have been somewhat successful to
-- a) prove the infrastructure (incl. giving priority to the ESN over regular mobile phone traffic) and
-- b) put some trial devices into the hands of some police to trial (not sure of the outcome of this).

Are there any folks here who might be able to add any other developments / news / commentary perhaps?


https://www.computerweekly.com/news...twork-progress-deeply-unsatisfactory-says-PAC

 

[Pete_uk]

I would be interested to know if this will be running a OS from Samgsung or if it's Android.

Edit, a photo of the prototype handset can be found in the link below.

http://www.landmobile.co.uk/news/esn-esmcp-live-demo-bapco-2018-user-feedback/

 

[Muky]

Just wondering, what have Vodafone got to do with this?

 

[MysterAitch]

I would be interested to know if this will be running a OS from Samgsung or if it's Android.

Edit, a photo of the prototype handset can be found in the link below.

http://www.landmobile.co.uk/news/esn-esmcp-live-demo-bapco-2018-user-feedback/

Cheers for the link!

I haven't seen anything but would also be interested!

Reading through that article it refers to a range of apps that will be used, without mentioning the os.

Just wondering, what have Vodafone got to do with this?

My understanding is that Vodafone are responsible for the existing masts (and the software running the masts) in a roughly equivalent way that EE are now responsible for rolling out/maintaining/running the new ESN masts/network.

Vodafone have been given an end date for their work, which (I presume) means that various counts of individuals have either started/will be starting new work or have been given end dates, and equipment is being sold/repurposed once the end of the existing contract is reached.

This means that if EE don't have everything in place by the end of the Tetra contract, there will be an interim period where neither system is functional.

The solution here is then fill this gap by either bringing the ESN forward/earlier (there's a delay creating this gap, so not feasible), or push the end date of the existing infrastructure back/later (means (re)employing people and keeping people/kit etc working on it later at whatever cost this is).

 

[Pete_uk]

Well, its been kicked about five years down the road. The contract with the Motorola owned, Vodafone maintained Airwave system will be extended as needed.

No cheap TETRA radios on the market for a while, then.