A Mikromakro Institute Report

TETRA for Poland

8 July 2011

O R G A N I S AT I O N A L & B U S I N E S S M O D E L S

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ISBN 978-83-62824-01-4

TETRA for Poland

TETRA for Poland by Fundacja Instytut Mikromakro is licensed under a Creative Commons Uznanie autorstwa 3.0 Unported License.

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TETRA for Poland

O RG A N I S AT I O N A L & B U S I N E S S M O D E L S
The deployment and implementation of a single nationwide communications system for public protection and disaster relief services is a complex challenge for any country. Synergies in the technical organisation of communications systems must be created for a number of different services, governed by different regulations and financed from different sources, which requires adaptation to their specific needs. One cannot discard the experience gained from their earlier operations, but on the other hand, some old ways, like the physical ownership and control of infrastructure need to be changed, because it is now better to share infrastructure with others. Securing stable financing for a major project can be quite a challenge, as it will compete with other important public policy objectives financed from the national budget. Even when governed by uncompromising security or national defence requirements, public telecommunications projects are increasingly often planned as long-term cooperation with private partners. The telecom sector has been commercialised over the last decade or so, and learned the ways of the market economy. Even if not designed to compete with market players, state-operated projects must take account of the market environment or else they will be unable to cope with their operating costs or secure finance for development. When taking on new challenges in the area of telecommunications, the public sector may take advantage of the knowledge of the private sector in the fields of technology, infrastructure roll-out, management of telecommunications operators' costs or application of sophisticated financial instruments. With a selected partner, it may co-decide on operating responsibilities, financing models and risk management. This report by the Mikromakro Institute Foundation does not purport to identify the optimal model for working with a private partner, technology vendor, integrator, operator or investor in Poland. To a certain extent, these are political choices. The State decides how it wishes to control ventures, which are critical for the security of the population, protection of property, infrastructure or the economy. It is also up to the government to decide, if it wishes to promote the deployment of an international technical platform for the cooperation of public protection and relief services in neighbouring countries. Such choices need to be made following a thorough review of the considerations. In our report we wish to point to a range of possible solutions derived from other countries' experiences. In drawing up this report we wished to avoid discussion on technical issues, e.g. comparisons of the technical or functional specifications, preferring to leave that to experts in radio trunking systems. Technical terms are used in the report mostly to illustrate prevailing market trends. What we want to do in this report, is to dispel doubts about the rationality of selecting TETRA for nationwide public protection and disaster relief networks in many countries, including all European countries, except Poland, at least to date. The greatest benefit associated with the TETRA digital system, developed specifically for public protection and disaster relief services, is the maturity of this open standard and dozens of successful implementations. The standard will continue its evolution, thus meeting the expectations with regard to the integration of high-speed data transmission, also in the new generations of radiocommunications systems, e.g. LTE. This market is restricted to professional applications, which are a niche, as if it were, comparing to commercial mobile telephony. Nonetheless, the effects of competition are clearly visible in TETRA systems, including the drive at the interoperability of different vendors' equipment, testing of crossborder network connectivity, development of the applications' market or specialised industrial applications. Dozens of working fora, seminars and conferences provide ample opportunity to share experiences on the roll-out and operation of TETRA systems, development of interfaces, new services and applications. No other competing radio trunking system has the same kind of evolutionary momentum collectively driven by technology vendors, operators and users of government networks. It is precisely

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such conditions, which have led to the development of applications and specialised technical solutions, which no single user could afford to develop alone. We address this report to: Policy-makers and decision-makers involved in crisis management, national security, public law & order and disaster relief services; Policy-makers dealing with communications systems and spectrum management; Those in charge of the development and operation of communications services for government services, emergency services, public security services of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, crisis management services; Users of state-operated radio trunking systems.

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Table of contents
1. RADIO TRUNKING SYSTEMS IN POLAND ............................................................... 1 Current TETRA status in Poland .............................................................................................................. 2 2. ORGANISATION AND ECONOMICS OF TETRA NETWORKS ................................... 4 Scope and scale of the system .............................................................................................................. 4 Risk of nonfeasance and makeshift solutions....................................................................................... 6 Role of project leadership ...................................................................................................................... 7 Network planning ..................................................................................................................................... 8 Contract with infrastructure operator ................................................................................................... 9 3. SELECTED EXAMPLES OF IMPLEMENTED TETRA NETWORKS GOVERNMENT PROJECTS Hungary................................................................................................................................................... 11 Finland ..................................................................................................................................................... 14 Estonia...................................................................................................................................................... 16 Denmark .................................................................................................................................................. 18 4. TETRA AS A PANEUROPEAN EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM ............ 21 Frequency harmonisation in Europe ................................................................................................... 22 Standardisation...................................................................................................................................... 23 European forum of government TETRA network users and administrators ................................. 26 Cross-border cooperation ................................................................................................................... 27 Sector representation the TETRA Association................................................................................ 27 5. DIGITAL RADIO TRUNKING SYSTEMS ALTERNATIVE TO TETRA TECHNOLOGY .. 29 DMR.......................................................................................................................................................... 29 CDMA2000 - GoTa .............................................................................................................................. 30 6. INTEROPERABILITY ISSUES .................................................................................... 37 Interoperability Certificate.................................................................................................................. 37 ISI inter systems interface..................................................................................................................... 37 7. TETRA DEVELOPMENT ........................................................................................... 40 8. SOURCES ............................................................................................................... 42

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TETRA for Poland

O RG A N I S AT I O N A L & B U S I N E S S M O D E L S

RADIO TRUNKING SYSTEMS IN POLAND

Currently, Poland has more than ten thousand diverse operational trunked radio networks rolled out over the years. They are used in organisations, which need permanent communications, but also require mobility. Such communications allow real-time coordination within an organisation and simultaneous communications with all users. Mobile radio users can remain in touch at all times, but they can also listen too what is happening with the rest. This is the way that many organisations use their means of communications and it corresponds to users' habits. Despite the rapid growth of mobile telecommunications services and applications, the technical and service aspects of the successive generations of commercial GSM, UMTS or HSPA networks have been designed in a different way than radio trunking networks and they do not offer the basic services required of radio trunking networks, nor the other services currently available in radio trunking networks, such as: group calls, which dominate in radio trunking networks, pre-emptive priority calls or direct mode calls. Even though cellular networks are built according to theoretically flexible standards suitable for new SOA standards, commercial mobile operators have never been particularly keen on looking for technical solutions or services, which could be substitutes for typical radio trunking network applications. In the meantime, several hundred thousand mobile radios currently operating in radio trunking networks in Poland use many radio channels in different frequency bands. These are mostly very small and simple networks, using the same channel for TX and RX (simplex mode). Call quality in these networks susceptible to fading and interference is usually low and radio frequency spectrum efficiency is poor. The widespread increase in mobility and increased demand for transmitting information over the radio has turned such wasteful radio spectrum utilization into a problem. In the early 1990s Poland started to build technically more advanced networks, so-called trunking networks, in which a computerised mobile services switching centre would automatically set up connections, selecting the free radio channel from the pool of available channels. One example of such networks was the EDACS network supplied by Ericsson and operated by the police. Other examples were a nationwide commercial network based on the British standard MPT13277, the network used by the national power grid and some 20 local networks. These networks, which used analogue methods to process and transmit signals, became obsolete as digital systems evolved. Digital technologies, the development of semi-conductor technologies, a greater scale of integration and improved battery performance have made it possible not only to develop better terminals, base stations, switches and processing methods, but also offered much more efficient radio signal coding, modulation and frequency spectrum utilisation. The users of private radio trunking networks are now offered digital systems, like DMR or TETRA.

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TETRA for Poland

It is estimated that there are currently some 2000 networks rolled out at different times, using many different technologies, which cater to the needs of state services, whose important duties require mobility. Among others, these are security and public order services, national security agencies, national fire brigades fighting and disaster relief services, emergency medical services and the border guard.

Current TETRA status in Poland

Communications administration in Poland tends to have an open approach to EU policy concerning the development of pan-European radiocommunications systems, unless there are some major, objective barriers, e.g. due to Poland's position as an EU frontier state. This was the case with the proposed frequency allocations for a pan-European TETRA mobile communications system for public protection and disaster relief services, which was one of the postulates in connection with the publication of the 1994 Green Paper on a common approach in the field of mobile and personal communications [Green Paper, EU 1994]. The intention to roll out a TETRA network in Poland first appeared in a government strategy paper in the late 1990s , entitled "Telecommunications development strategy" published in mid 1996 [Polityka, 1996]. This document had an exceptional status, as it was first adopted by the Council of Ministers and then presented in the Parliament. In the late nineties of the 20th century entities, which had the right to make decisions about radiocommunications systems had obtained access to offers for TETRA technology and it took relatively little time to deploy more than a dozen local networks. The year 1999 saw the beginning of the roll-out of a TETRA system in a technology supplied by Motorola to the Command Control Centre (SWD) of Warsaw's Police HQ. The system became operational in 2002. Later, Provincial Police HQs in d, Szczecin, Cracow and Szczytno also started using TETRA networks. In 2004, Poland's NRA (URTiP, at the time) issued seven decisions, which made it possible to roll out local networks. It was then that the networks managed by the cities of Szczecin, Wrocaw and Gdask were built. Speaking of local commercial networks, one should mention equipping the biggest airports, seaports, container terminals and power distribution companies with TETRA networks. The first practical step which took Poland closer to the deployment of a nationwide TETRA network was the designation of a team at the Ministry of Interior and Administration in July 2000, which was to lay down the rules for the establishment and operation of an organisational unit assuring nationwide TETRA communications. In November 2001 a team with a similar brief achieved a higher status, as it had been called into being by a decision of the President of the Council of Ministers. The concept of deploying a nationwide TETRA network was recognised as realistic when the decision was made that under the contract for the delivery of 48 F-16 fighters to Poland, concluded on 20 June 2003, the roll-out of a state-of-the-art communications system for public protection and disaster relief services, with the transfer of TETRA equipment manufacturing technology could be included as an important element of the offset deal in a 10-year period. The value of this offset commitment was estimated at US $ 1.4 billion, including the transfer of equipment manufacturing technology to Radmor SA. June 2003 saw the establishment of the ComputerLand SA, Prokom Software SA, Tel-Energo SA and Motorola consortium, which after a year of preliminary negotiations with the Ministry of Interior and Administration, developed a TETRA roll-out plan, which was to last three years and a half and ensure nationwide coverage by 2008. This new network was to replace the older SWD Police networks. The plan called for building some 1700 base stations, a backbone optical fibre network, many radio lines and equipping some 140,000 users in public protection and disaster relief services with mobile radios.

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The lack of experience on the part of the government side in negotiating offset terms, absence of a negotiation strategy for the development and operation of a TETRA network and, as we can now say with the benefit of hindsight, maybe mostly the lack of leadership in the strategy of the implementation of new technologies in the economy, have led to a deadlock in the negotiations. The Council of Ministers took very long to make a decision and to resolve on the division of powers between the Ministry of Interior and Administration in charge of the TETRA project and the Ministry of the Economy, responsible for programming the offset. Estimated project costs soared to nearly PLN 5b, nobody had any clue as to how to finance the project, there was no clear vision of the organisation and financing of the provision of the services in the future network, or how to coordinate and integrate the IT systems of the various services. Ultimately, the government decided that project implementation under the offset, i.e. within a pre-defined model of cooperation, would not be successful. Early in 2007 the Ministry of Interior and Administration developed a modified conception for the deployment of a nationwide TETRA network, in several stages, based on an open tender. The first stage called for the deployment of pilot networks in Warsaw and Katowice, plus a national crisis management centre. After that, the system was to be gradually extended. Unfortunately, nobody bothered to review the economic estimates earlier prepared for the offset project, which had been already challenged earlier. It was also assumed that after approval by the Council of Ministers, the project was to be used to secure financing under one of the financial instruments offered under EU structural funds, EIB bonds or under the so-called Norway Grants in the framework of funds earmarked for technical projects related to the protection of Schengen frontiers. Returning to offset negotiations was another option of implementing the project, but the proposals of the Ministry of Interior and Administration lacked vision, which the government could back. Moreover, there were no proposals on issues, which had been the weakness of earlier offset negotiations, namely, on the future business model for the TETRA system operator or how to ensure seamless cooperation between the different users. The new coalition government, which came to power after the fall elections of 2007, started the preparations for the tender for a nationwide TETRA system from scratch. It proposed to change the approach to the implementation of government ICT projects by, among other methods, transferring the organisation of preparations to a new institution - the Centre for IT Projects answerable to the Ministry of Interior and Administration. The ultimate approach was to select bidders for framework agreements and a staged implementation of a project, neutrally called in technological terms Nationwide Digital Communications System. One can only assume that this procedure was to be a prelude to negotiations, which would allow the transfer of knowledge on optimised business, technical and economic models. The tender was announced in August 2010. The project was to be financed up to 85% with EU funds Operational Programme Innovative Economy, i.e. PLN 500m. The first stage meant the roll-out of radiocommunications networks for public protection and disaster relief services in Poland's biggest cities, which are to host the EURO 2012 European Football Championships. Unfortunately, in view of the deadline imposed by the EURO 2012, the Ministry of Interior and Administration was unable to make up for the time wasted on procedural wrangling, instead of substantive negotiations and to fine tune the project. Tying the project to the EURO 2012 timetable became impossible and the tender was officially cancelled on April 14.

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ORGANISATION AND ECONOMICS OF TETRA NETWORKS

European countries have adopted different organisational and economic models for the roll-out and operation of TETRA networks for their public protection and disaster relief services. However, any government authority in charge of the planning and implementation of such an undertaking will always face the same fundamental dilemma how to reconcile contradictory determinants: Ensuring that the new system has all the necessary functionalities and coverage derived from the duties of the services, which will use it; Budget constraints

Scope and scale of the system

The basic user groups, for which professional radio trunking networks are built and for which the Postponing the migration of trunked radio TETRA standard had been developed, are various networks used to date to a new TETRA police, public protection, fire fighting, medical network will delay the achievement of the emergency, technical emergency services, utilities, break-even point by its operators road transport, railways, inland navigation, public transportation, logistics, electrical energy producers & distributors, liquid fuel producers & distributors, major factories located on large sites, such as chemical, automotive or metallurgical plants. Although this varies in scope and degree, the ability of all these TETRA user groups to operate depends on effective communications. For several years now, emergency medical services have been implementing detailed procedures intended to streamline their operations, which includes minimising the time required for reaction, proper incident qualification, first aid and transit to the hospital. Communications are a factor allowing cutting down on the time required for these procedures. There are times, when a communications system is not only indispensable, but when it becomes an inherent part of an organisation. This is the case of modern-day police, where an officer in the field should have permanent access to a reliable mobile communications device. The growing significance of information systems has not only recently changed the way, in which many organisations operate, but it has radically overturned those, which had already earlier relied on trunked mobile radiocommunications. In logistics and transportation, increasingly conceptually sophisticated resource management is a must. It is not only about increasing productivity, but also about obvious savings in factors, which indirectly affect the operation of various systems, but are as important as e.g. energy consumption. This was the consequence of a competitive marketplace and a better understanding of the need to protect the environment. Complexity and automatic information processing systems have brought about the notion of smart transportation, but also smart power industry, or smart cities. Generally, telecommunications systems are governed by economies of scale. Theoretically, if we pass over the not so negligible market aspects of service provision in a competitive environment, it would be more profitable to build a bigger system, serving a greater number of users, especially users whose ability to pay for the services does not depend on the state budget. The 380MHz frequency band harmonised in Europe for TETRA networks was clearly allocated for the purposes of mobile communications in emergency situations. However, it is more for budgetary considerations, than any restrictive state security policies, that government-built TETRA networks in the case of most known projects have been scaled to the requirements of state public protection and disaster relief services, even if simple professional logic concerning traffic planning in the network would suggest allowing for the redundancy required in an emergency mobilization.

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Project preparation management

Due to some historical momentum, the telecommunications sector, including Poland, still has some stateowned or scientific IT networks, whose administrators have not yet been forced to learn about analysing investment and operating costs. However, the TETRA project is not only autonomous, but it is also associated with the provision of services to many organisations, differing in terms of organisation and needs. Budget constraints, which to a varying extent have affected practically all nationwide TETRA networks deployed to date, should not be interpreted as a need to limit the scope of projects. Such an approach would be irrational considering the purpose of such networks. In other words, public protection and disaster relief services, constitutionally responsible for performing critical missions on behalf of the state must fulfil their duties irrespective of the time or location of events, which require their intervention. Radiocommunications networks designed to serve them must ensure full functionality and territorial coverage, to allow the performance of these duties. Budget constraints should provide incentives to look for savings in project organisation, but not necessarily in its scope. In particular, it's worth assessing if makeshift solutions or half measures can generate savings, or perhaps, on the contrary, they will increase costs in a strategic perspective. The fact of dealing with a special government project does not mean that one can dispense with developing a state-of-the-art financial model for the project and its subsequent operation. Irrespective of funding or network ownership, all government TETRA networks are now built under the operator model, which simply speaking means that they should be settled as standalone projects designed to provide services to interested users. Decisions on who will own the network and who will provide the services are a separate issue. The telecommunications sector has operated in a competitive environment for the past decade or so, which enabled it to develop financial methodologies for projects, including issues such as: CAPEX and OPEX for networks, terminal equipment, services and applications; Marketing considerations Legal considerations Organisation of the investment project Organisation of the provision of services Technical solutions

The pressure of competitive market prices on motivation to increase efficiency has little meaning in the case of a government TETRA network, or at least it is not a primary consideration. However, a similar effect can be achieved due to the need to frugally manage the budget of state services. At the planning stage, the purpose of cost-saving analyses is to speed up project implementation by identifying and analysing the factors, which will allow cutting back on CAPEX and OPEX, organisation, legal, market and technical considerations.

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Risk of nonfeasance and makeshift soluti ons

Budget constraints in the functioning of a state often generate situations, where money is short even for some very mundane, day-to-day needs of public protection or disaster relief services. In making a rational assessment of investment in communications systems, it is difficult not to compare such spending with potentially tragic losses due to delayed reaction or poor coordination due to the lack of information. It is a recent practice to analyse relief operations in great detail, which involved major resources on the part of public protection and disaster relief services. Such analyses always involve key issues like the coordination of activities and information transmission procedures. Major disasters, accidents at mass events or terrorist attacks don't happen on a daily basis. The appropriate services of collaborating countries share their experiences from such incidents. Such analyses make it possible to review and improve procedures, and also, to take preventive measures to avoid repeating the same mistakes or, even better, to mitigate the risk of the recurrence of such incidents. Unfortunately, we have all too many examples of situations, where poor preparation and availability of information systems, incompetent information processing or blocked information channels due to spurious savings in the organisation of information systems have had their major share in the escalation of threats and only compounded losses, which could have been minimised. In this context we need to take account of the relatively new terrorist risks, where we deal with intentional acts seeking to maximise damage, find weak spots in security systems and also, increasingly often, in emergency response procedures. Valuable experience is also to be derived from drills like those organised with the participation of the Mikromakro Institute at the Freedom and Security (Wolno i Bezpieczestwo) in Gdask in June 2011. The evacuation of the spectators at the Ergo Arena hall after a simulated bomb attack and the participation of all services available in Tricity (Trjmiasto), including the Volunteer Lifeguard Service (WOPR), Border Guard and a Navy helicopter was both spectacular and successful. However, it also showed that some routine procedures, including the sharing and management of information in such situations were equally unadapted.

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Role of project leadership

In most analyses of the development of government TETRA networks much emphasis was placed on the role of leadership in project implementation, as a means of mobilising the parties concerned to push forward with the objectives of the project and of reconciling contradictory interests. Leadership is required at various stages when the model of the project takes shape, when financing is decided upon, in negotiations with the infrastructure operator, in the investment process, but also during service implementation and user migration to the new network. Building an integrated network, intended for many hierarchical organisations, which are nonetheless used to operate autonomously, will inevitably involve resistance and a confrontation of different views. TETRA is a very flexible instrument at the technical level, developed on the basis of scores of implementation. It allows the creation of fully autonomous user groups and can be adapted to most of the specific needs of different organisational structures. However, the operator model presupposes that services and applications will be provided to these organisations by an outside provider, who must understand their specific needs and synthesize these diverse expectations for his own purposes. Given that emergency response systems are still under development in most countries, there are significant differences in the understanding of the role, purpose and utilisation of radiocommunications systems, even in such simple matters as the semantics of the description of actions, services and applications. After all, the role of a TETRA network operator does not include solving a state's problems concerning emergency response coordination or day-to-day emergencies handled by the various services. Operators from different countries have indicated that these things tend to be a problem during the start-up of services and not everything can be promptly resolved at the level of technical contacts.

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Developing the strategy for migration from older systems to a state-of-the-art, single digital TETRA network is a typical dilemma for most countries. Solving this dilemma requires strong, duly empowered and politically conscious leadership of the TETRA project. Users' inertia is due to their habits, but also the presumed benefits of the earlier used systems. Sometimes, these are systems, which are not technically worn out yet. Facing delays in the implementation of the TETRA project in Poland, users are sometimes forced to buy new system to take care of their day-to-day needs. Some of them opt for relatively modern systems, e.g. DMR class, which may ultimately cause obstruction to the development of a more professional nationwide system, more suitable for the services. On the other hand, given the inevitability of the deployment of a uniform nationwide system, one must consider the costs of the integration of different incompatible systems, but also the cost of the additional delay in the achievement of the breakeven point by the TETRA system. In the case of Poland, e.g. during the organisation of regional emergency communications call centres, evolutionary implementation of new communications systems has been often the preferred method. The operator model, optimal for the roll-out and operation of TETRA systems, under which the financing model should break even as soon as possible, is in conflict with the strategy of evolutionary transition from existing systems to a new one. In most cases of analysed TETRA government networks abroad, decisions were made to quickly migrate users to new networks, which often meant freeing the previously used frequencies.

Network planning
The need to take account of the specific requirements of networks intended for public protection and disaster relief services established to deal with critical missions is well illustrated by a comparison of their determinants with commercial cellular networks, which are usually planned so as to ensure that services have good population coverage. Cellular operators invest most heavily in densely populated agglomerations. Sparsely populated areas are less well served. There, operators usually deploy BTSs with minimum capacities required for the conditions and state-of-the-art solutions are introduced later. Yet disasters, which require handling increased radio traffic, can happen anywhere, which is why networks designed to take care of such emergencies require different planning. The risk of incidents, which TETRA network planning differences comparing with may require the intervention of disaster relief services, commercial cellular networks is always higher along all, not necessarily major transport routes, roads or railways, tunnels, bridges, Networks scaled to achieve coverage, rather gas and fuel pipelines or storage areas, water dams. than capacity Of course a mobile BTS may be deployed as a Group calls, including calls to many units, makeshift solution, but one needs to remember that operation in a single channel mission critical radio and backbone networks must Priority hierarchy with several levels allow flexible configuration, reliable scaleability and Queued access to radio resources continuity. In case of a major disaster, such systems must Short call duration be fully operational for several days on end, because Majority of traffic to control rooms if there are power supply problems, that is when they Heavy use of data transmission applications, such will be most needed and that is their strategic purpose. as vehicle location Private communications systems designed to operate in mission critical situations should be subordinated to the logic of operation of public protection or disaster relief services and supervised by such services. While the external features of professional mobile radios are visible attributes of services operating under difficult conditions, one must also take account of design features, which are difficult to imitate, such as the ACELP speech coding algorithm, where the comfort of accurate timbre transmission in a cell phone is less important than the requirement to cut off noise, to allow conversation in a noisy environment.

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Despite the theoretical obligation of telecommunications operators to have emergency plans, if an emergency does happen, there is no room for discussion with entrepreneurs on methods to be used to restore communications, or relief and maintenance activities. Compromises tolerable in the design of commercial networks, which allow a lower network capacity in case of force majeure, are unacceptable for services dealing with the rescue of humans and mitigating crisis consequences, which enter into action precisely at such times.

Contract with infrastructure operator

Without trying to determine what model of ownership and operator relationships should be recommended for the development of the network, including who is to be the owner and what should be the relationship between the network operator, its owner and maybe an additional service provider, it would appear that the operator model would be optimal. This should be understood as a situation, in which some designated organisational unit will be in charge of the TETRA project implementation. The sensitive areas to be agreed in an operator model are supervision over project implementation, funding, CAPEX and OPEX optimisation. Where a private partner is selected for the project, the parties' interests may be protected by various form of concession agreements or a PPP agreement. The differences in ownership relations, funding and authority: owner operator service provider users come down to the sharing of risks between the parties. However, provisions dealing with service levels required for public protection and disaster relief services, especially with regard to mission critical requirements, when serious interference may be anticipated in other communications systems, as well as transportation problems or power outages are equally important. Such networks must be planned from scratch to ensure continued operation in unusual, crisis conditions, which means they must take account of service availability in unusual places, which was mentioned in the previous chapter. The infrastructure operator must allow for the costs associated with ensuring reliability, flexible scaleability, service levels and continuity in the financing model, which it will develop, i.e. already at the network design stage. Available experience shows that the success of such negotiations depends on the good preparation of the parties. The users' interest is to ensure that the agreement provides for the supply of mobile radios and some other equipment by different vendors. Negotiations should also take account of the earlier mentioned differences in the specific requirements of various services and settle their differences over competencies, which have not been previously regulated in the relationships of different radiocommunications services. Given the strategic importance of government TETRA networks, the government representative, as the chief administrator of the TETRA network, usually looks after strategic national interests in the decisionmaking bodies of the infrastructure operator and also supervises its organisational unit in charge of security. Given all the considerations above, probably the worst solution is a situation, where the government decides to buy a service from an operator and has no control over the execution of the investment project or its security.

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Hans Holmberg Sales Vice-President Security & Communication Solutions Cassidian Systems

Today, when Europe is reeling from the crisis, when we see problems in Greece or Portugal, we are all discussing the most effective ways to build networks. Governments experience problems with financing the basic needs with budget funds, so discussions on investments include even TETRA networks, which are crucial to the everyday safety of the population. There are different ways to build and operate networks. There was a time, when governments were in charge of network operation and were their owners. I believe that future will see the spread of the service model, especially in countries experiencing problems with the financing of public investment projects. The state will have no need to invest, but it will be able to obtain services, sometimes even better than offered by its own organisations. There are already several examples of countries, which rely on outsourcing for their communications networks, such as e.g. Hungary. A private partner is taking care of network roll-out and the organisation of services. A state-owned operator will now become the owner and provide the services, but technical maintenance and network management will remain with the private firm. Today, Finland is an extreme example, because the network, which has been operating for years now, is run by a state organisational unit, but the state is transferring more autonomy and responsibility to that operator, adding new duties related to the maintenance of secure communications systems. Many countries choose to transfer the responsibility, but therefore also the technical risks associated with network development and management, to specialised firms. Of course this requires governmental decisions, because funds need to be allocated for the purchase of services, but this tends to be easier than planning an investment project in a debate on the state budget. The police, fire brigades, rescue services they all incur the operating costs of communications, which can be identified and summed up. This OPEX can be used as a basis for estimating the cost of purchasing services. Quality issues also need to be dealt with in detail, as the operator has to agree to take special measures to ensure the requisite level of service availability. All the users should agree to such a mechanism. There is already a considerable body of practical knowledge in the market on how such projects should be dealt with under the operator model. The Polish government may expect the selected partner to offer such experience as its contribution to cooperation.

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SELECTED EXAMPLES OF IMPLEMENTED TETRA NETWORKS GOVERNMENT PROJECTS

Hungary
Model the state buys retail and wholesale services from the operator service provider System name EDR Uniform Digital Radiocommunications System (EDR) System operator Pro-M, a company of the Magyar Telekom group, which is a part of T-Systems Purchase of services from the operator, who built the network according to the requirements set out by the government on negotiated terms and conditions: Network roll-out, launch and operation financed by the operator - Pro-M, Flat annual fee of EUR 37.3 million + VAT, In the first stage the operator supplied 14 thousand terminals. Their rental fee is included in the flat fee payable for services, Users hold open tenders for the purchase of the remaining 28 thousand terminals, The term of the agreement is 10 years. After 2015 network ownership will be transferred to the state.

A summary of the Hungarian project emphasises that the appointment of a government plenipotentiary in the rank of a secretary of state answerable directly to the PM was crucial to success

Basic parameters of the EDR network Number of base stations Number of switches Number of dispatchers Number of terminals Technology 270 4 400 42,000 (currently abt. 37K) Cassidian - TETRA (TEDS in second half of 2011) 10 030 975 93 030 km2 2 185 km

Population Area Length of borders

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The Hungarian government conducted the negotiations in two rounds according to the competitive dialogue procedure set out in public procurement law. The Minister of Communications and IT published the announcement on the negotiation procedure on 21 April 2005 in the Official Journal of the EU (OJ UE 2005/s 78-075773) and on 29 April, and a week later in the official Hungarian public procurement bulletin. The Hungarian government appointed a special plenipotentiary in the rank of a secretary of state to ensure an efficient negotiation process and then project implementation and coordination with users' organisations. In the years 2002-2010 the plenipotentiary was a former military officer, chief engineer of the IT Department of the Hungarian Ministry of Defence, Mr. Istvn Pesti. He was also responsible for the implementation of the 112 European Emergency Number. At the time of the conclusion of the agreement with the Pro-M operator the EDR was formally supervised by the Chancellery of the Council of Ministers. Today supervision is assured by the Minister for Development. The announcement concerned the provision of services in a private digital network operating in the terrestrial radiocommunications service in the harmonized 380-385/390-395 MHz band, in accordance with Schengen recommendations and relevant domestic standards in at least 94% of the country's area and in the border regions. Among other things, the announcement specified: that the network should handle at least 42K terminals and 20 different authorised entities, while ensuring their virtual separation and freedom of organisation & hierarchy and different security levels; the basic range of services to be provided in such a network, including IP data transmission; the financial status of the tenderers based on their financial statements; tenderers' technical competencies and experience; the experience of the experts and sub-contractors involved; the method for awarding points for offers, with points being awarded for: technical criteria and sub-criteria for the network, technical criteria and sub-criteria for the services, the declared annual fee, declared coefficients of contractual penalties for defective network operation (given as a discount rate), a bank guarantee, a performance bond.

Project timetable: 25 May 2005 Opening of the bids,

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29 May 2005 The Hungarian PM announces the winner - T-Mobile Hungary - T-Mobile is a company of the Magyar Telecom capital group, 26 October 2005 Contract signed, 5 April 2006 Network start-up ceremony in Budapest, 21 December 2006 Network operational after 422 days from the opening of the bids, January 2007 Final acceptance of the coverage of the entire national territory with services.

The RFQ for T-Mobile (the winner) laid down, among other things, the reference specification for the radiocommunications system and a matrix of project indices, so that the bidder could in advance select the technology, supplier and specify project assumptions. It is also for this reasons that the total cost of obtaining radio trunking services in the old technologies EUR 80m for the previous year was adopted as a reference value. A lot of attention during the negotiations was devoted to arrangements concerning the use of its own network resources and equipment by the government, the annual fee and estimating the value of the network to be turned over to the state upon the termination or expiry of the agreement. The agreement settled several key issues: the value of the performance bond was fixed at HUF 15b (EUR 60m), provisions concerning the buyout of the network upon the expiry of the agreement (0 HUF), rules concerning the supervision of the operator's activities by the state. These provisions specify that the government may delegate its representatives to the decision-making bodies of the company Supervisory Council (4 out of 11) and the Management Board (1 out of 6). Government services also delegate persons heading the operator's security department.

An affiliated company of Magyar Telekom called Pro-M was founded to operate the Uniform Digital Radiocommunications System (EDR). The EDR network operates in the 380-385/390-395 MHz band, which according to the National Frequency Allocation Table is intended for harmonised emergency communications. The operator was charged with the following tasks: planning, roll-out and operation of the EDR network; using the EDR to provide the services set out in the specification until the year 2015; operation of the EDR system, including continuous operation on a 7/24/365 basis, protection against damage, maintenance work and logging of events, repairs and restoration, modifications and modernisation; management and monitoring of the EDR system, including lines leased from other operator; user training.

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EDR users: police, border guards, fire brigades, Directorate for Protection against Disasters, environmental protection services, Water Management Directorate, Ministry of Finance, National Ambulance Service, Hungarian army. Arrangements concerning network parameters o network availability 99.9% in a year, total allowed downtime 8 hrs per year, o radio signal coverage 94% of the country's area, i.e. 93,000km2, o number of users maximum number specified in the contract is 42 thousand, but operator's remuneration does not depend on the actual number of connected users, o network usage unlimited number of group or individual calls, SDS messages, IP traffic, limited number of outgoing calls from the network. Fixed remuneration of the operator (Pro-M) agreed as a flat fee of EUR 37.3 million + VAT per year.

The EDR network is functionally integrated with the European Emergency Number 112. The launch of the EDR network also meant turning off all radio trunking systems used earlier by various state services. A broad promotion campaign among users preceded the implementation of these services. There were a number of seminars, the book "You and your TETRA radio" [Heikkonen, 2004] was translated into Hungarian and offered to several hundred heads of organisations using radio trunking systems. Training on new developments in the networks is provided on an ongoing basis. This includes: new equipment and using its functions maps are updated quarterly, as are any modifications in markings on the maps introduction of theme maps traffic reports and descriptions of incidents presentation of data, statistics, charts, alarms, images, photos and films.

The system allows the use of the network by users other than state services, mostly under the assumption that these will be organisations taking part in disaster relief operations, non-governmental rescue services or municipal services.

Finland
Model the state owns and operates the network System name VIRVE1 organisational unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs VIRVE is non-profit, The VIRVE network collaborates with National Security Networks Ltd.,

VIRVE fin.VIRanomais VErkko government network

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TETRA for Poland

Operating experience since 2002 shows that savings in such an integrated system are in the order of 20-30% comparing to physical private networks, VIRVE handles about 4 million SDS text messages per day, 100,000 group calls per day, The installation of broadband TEDS started in 2010. Number of base stations Number of switches Number of terminals Network technology Population Area 1300 15 32K terminals serving about 100K users Cassidian

5 326 000 338 145 km2, whereof 33 372km2 of waters, 171 000 islands 2 654 km, including 1 313 km of Schengen border with Russia

Length of borders

The team charged with the organisation of VIRVE was established in 1995. Since that time, at the roll-out stage VIRVE operated as an organisational unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in two groups: operating group and technical group. In the years 2004-2007, during the organisation of the service provision system, the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications set up a group for liaising with the users, called TURVE. During the past year relations with users at VIRVE have been handled by the VIRVE cooperation team. The VIRVE cooperation team makes decisions on financial planning and on services & network development strategies. Representatives of the following organisations make up the team: o Ministry of Internal Affairs, o armed forces, o National Agency for Emergencies, o Health and Social Welfare Ministry, o technical centre of the police, o border guard, o operator of the National Security Networks. The group of VIRVE's main users makes decisions on technical issues and the implementation of new solutions and applications. This group is made up of representatives of: police,

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fire brigades and disaster relief services, armed forces, Health and Social Welfare Ministry, border guard, customs services, operator of the National Security Networks.

Project timetable: 1992 planning, 1995 beginning of the project, 1998 network roll-out, 2002 achievement of nationwide coverage, 2004 services fully operational.

Estonia
Model the state buys services from an entity using state-owned infrastructure System name - ESTER Network owner Minister of Internal Affairs Service provider SMIT (IT & Development Centre) an organisational unit answerable to the Minister of Internal Affairs Network operator RIKS (National ICT Foundation) Services are provided in a network built by the state The state rolled out the network, which is operated by an organisational unit answerable to the Minister of Internal Affairs The network is operated by an entity founded by the state - RIKS, which operates on a non-profit basis under the law on foundations The costs of the RIKS operator are paid for by the state budget User organisations buy their own terminals 100 abt. 10K

Number of base stations Number of terminals

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TETRA for Poland

Technology

Cassidian

Population Area

1.3 m 45 227 km2, whereof 2 015km2 of waters, 1 520 islands 633 km, including 338.6 km of Schengen border with Russia

Length of borders

RIKS, the National ICT Foundation was founded by a government decision in December 2000. The foundation was to be a non-profit organisation. Its duty was to provide telecommunications and ICT services to organisational units of the state, including the management of networks designed to operate in emergencies. 90% of the project was financed from the Schengen fund. Estonia obtained this funding to strengthen its borders. The subsidy was about EUR 13.4m. RIKS now employs 63 people and manages 3 networks: a fixed government telephone network, a coastal communications network, as the waters of the Baltic Sea account for much of the national territory (MF, HF, VHF), PMR trunking systems: EDACS an analogue trunking system launched in 1994 and shut down in 2009, 5 base stations of the Finnish TETRA VIRVE network since 2002, ESTER TETRA network since 2007.

Project timetable: 3 June 2003 government approves the project of the digital radiocommunications PMR network, 7 July 2005 governmental decision to announce a tender for the roll-out of a nationwide radiocommunications network, 28 September 2006 agreement signed with2 Secure Networks Oy, 25 August 20007 confirmation that network achieved its full functionality.

ESTER' operating model RIKS, the operator assures the technical maintenance of the network and provides technical advice to users. All service issues rest with the government service provider SMIT.
2

EADS Defense&Security changed its name to Cassidian on 17 September 2010

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Operational planning concerning services is done separately for each organisation served. RIKS is a nonprofit foundation, so the state budget pays for the costs of its operation, in which leasing space for base stations or space on masts accounts for 30-40% of total costs. Technical management costs account for about 25-45% of the total. The monthly upkeep of one base station is about 1500 euros. Given that RIKS is an autonomous economic entity, the costs of its operation can be quite easily monitored by using normal business practices, without the bureaucratic problems inherent in administrative bodies. The form of a non-profit foundation was chosen to motivate RIKS to look for ways to cut operating costs, including energy-saving solutions for base stations. Transmission lines in the ESTER network are leased.

Denmark
Model the state buys services from the operator SINE network government agency, formerly supervised by the Ministry of Finance and since 1 September 2008 by the Danish state police (answerable to the Minster of Justice) System operator DBK - Dansk Beredskabskommunikation A/S Motorola Inc (99.4%) Purchase of the service from the operator TETRA technology vendor according to the requirements specified by the government on terms and conditions, which had been negotiated The operator-technology vendor organises the roll-out, start-up and operation of the network Users own about 1/3 of all terminals The operator is remunerated for the provision of services and guarantees the coverage, capacity and requisite service levels, irrespective of the number of users or the way in which they use the network. Service coverage is nationwide and specifically includes all key sites: bridges, tunnels, selected buildings, border areas and major events. The operator provides services directly to users The government pays a flat fee for a network with a guaranteed capacity and the cities make their settlements for services with the government Indoor service coverage in public buildings is specified in relevant regulations DBK made a small profit in 2010 abt. 500 6 20K terminals (target 40K) 99% leased from TDC Motorola

Number of base stations Number of service areas (redundant switches) Number of terminals Transmission lines Technology

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TETRA for Poland

Population Area

5 511 451 43 094 km2, whereof 700km2 of sea waters and abt. 406 islands

The agreement between the Danish government and Motorola on the provision of TETRA network services was concluded in June 2007, after a year of arduous negotiations, in which the government side was supported by consultancies - Gartner specialising in the IT market and Rovsing Management, specialising in project management and - at the preparatory stage also by Analysis Manson, specialising in the strategies of new information technologies, a valued advisor in many TETRA projects. SINE had the following key expectations during negotiations with Motorola: Obtaining a guarantee of a high stability of the SINE system Achieving a high service availability level Achieving the shortest possible resolution times for issues related to service stability, quality and availability SINE lifetime of minimum 10 years with continuous network and services optimisation DBK should preserve the highest possible standards in network organisation and handling of terminals DBK answers to enquiries should be accurate and detailed Maintaining the best possible relationships and working contacts

Rules for SINE's collaboration with DBK Steering committee Working group meetings once per month Requests for changes Implementation of new functionalities and technical solutions Monthly reports on performance, condition of the SINE network and errors Working-level contacts on demand

Additionally, working groups have been organised in all regions of Denmark, made up local authorities and representatives of municipal services, at decision-making, operational and technical levels. The early stages of operational collaboration between DBK and SINE and the users saw many problems related to the ability to satisfy very diverse expectations and needs of the basic user groups, which emphasised their specific nature and autonomy. Developing mechanisms to reconcile these different expectations was the most absorbing part of the TETRA start-up phase.

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SINE has a separate agreement on the handling of dispatcher centres. It was concluded in January 2008 with TERMA, Denmark's biggest integrator of systems for the defence and security sectors. Another task for the integrator was to integrate the communications systems of the police, fire brigades, ambulances, but also hospital services, national defence sector and emergency response services. Prior to integration, this meant about 100 different systems, mostly based on analogue platforms. The integration platform deals not only with the infrastructure and network layers of these networks, including systems responsible for the management of the operation of various services in emergencies, but also the secure, effective and reliable sharing of information. The IT systems of different organisations should interwork and be able to share data within the limits prescribed by applicable legal regulations and to monitor, e.g. location data. TERMA's involvement in SINE was reduced upon the completion of the organisation of dispatcher centres in December 2010. Additionally, SIME entered into agreements with terminal equipment vendors. Motorola has the highest share in the Danish market of terminals, but users are also buying terminals from other leading companies, like Sepura, Cassidian and Selex. The TETRA communications system is used by the police, fire brigades, emergency medical services, security service, border guard, maritime safety administration, civil services of the MOD and public transportation.

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TETRA AS A PANEUROPEAN EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM

Eliminating technical barriers in the cooperation of public protection and disaster relief services is intended to improve their performance in the prosecution of crimes, rescue and relief operations in catastrophes, natural disasters and all emergencies that they are responsible for. It is clear that in a Europe made up of 27 autonomous public protection and disaster relief systems, ensuring the conditions required for cooperation, let alone interoperability, as it is called in international military operations, is a major challenge. Technical issues are only one area, among many differences in the legal or organisational approach. It is common knowledge that many countries cannot cope with regulating their internal relations, let alone the international. However, while technical standardisation is helpful in organising collaboration, the incompatibility of communications systems may be a barrier, which can permanently and effectively stymie. The harmonisation of the requirements and frequencies has an important economic aspect. In a competitive environment standardized equipment and systems are cheaper. Operations and rescue are also much cheaper, because IT systems, which support decision-making, are more effective and run faster. Moreover, such a policy is easier to construe within EU's general strategy. Standardized communications systems promote the creation of a common European economic space and are also necessary due to the increased mobility of Europe's inhabitants, which includes criminals and terrorists. Effective and rapid information sharing between public protection services promotes the mobility of European citizens and the elimination of traditional border barriers. The abolition of border controls in the Schengen area allows the services of one state to undertake individual or joint activities outside their borders, e.g. in border areas. This also applies to natural disasters and catastrophes, when the management of the forces and resources of rescue and relief services should depend on their availability, rather than their formal territorial competencies. Efforts in the EU forum to harmonize the approach to the development of TETRA as a uniform communications system for public protection and disaster relief services is only one of areas, which require agreement on the organisation of IT systems. Such harmonisation work concerns also other communications systems. The fact that the list of issues to be agreed upon has a lot of other items, may indirectly favour the future formal recognition of TETRA as a pan-European system, because it has been implemented in nearly all the states. Even though the original intention of EU policy in the early 1990s was to create conditions for developing TETRA as a uniform pan-European system, which was to be assisted by the harmonisation of frequencies in the 380MHz band and standardisation work by ETSI, member states continued to build their TETRA systems according to their own conceptions for more than a decade. This is why Europe now has nationwide TETRA and TETRAPOL 3, which differ in terms of organisation and technical solutions. The existence of dozens of technology companies in the market testify to the openness of the TETRA standard, but network solutions are based on technologies independently developed by Cassidian, Motorola and Selex4. These networks have been rolled out in different periods and compatibility with other networks was rarely treated as a top priority. For the past several years active efforts have been undertaken in various international fora to develop the rules for the interworking of these networks, including the development of networking interfaces, the compatibility of equipment, networks and applications, roaming settlements and enhanced joint coordination of the technical development of the system.

TETRAPOL networks have been rolled out in Spain, France, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania. The TETRAPOL was developed in 1986 by Matracom. Apart from the interoperability of ISI standars, it is not being developed as an ETSI standard. Cassidian (EADS) remains the sole vendor of this technology 4 Rohde&Schwarz supplied the network to Bosnia and Herzegovina
3

TETRA for Poland

ITU International Telecommunications Union, ITU fr. Union internationale des telecommunications one of the oldest international organisations with its headquarters in Geneva, currently part of the UN system, dealing with development policies and standardisation in telecommunications and the Radio Regulations, including radio frequency spectrum management.

Ensuring the technical ability of rescue and relief services to cooperate and act together in individual and collective emergencies, catastrophes, natural disaster and warfare has been a traditional area of international harmonisation since the beginning of radiocommunications. Some of this harmonisation requires global coordination, covering a whole range of issues dealing with the principles governing the operation of marine, aviation, satellite, fixed and mobile terrestrial services. These issues are taken up within the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). It was in the ITU forum that the common methodology for the organisation and allocation of frequencies for two areas, collectively referred to as PPDR systems5 was adopted: Public protection (PP) radiocommunication: Radiocommunications used by responsible agencies and organizations dealing with maintenance of law and order, protection of life and property, and emergency situations. Disaster relief (DR) radiocommunication: Radiocommunications used by agencies and organizations dealing with a serious disruption of the functioning of society, posing a significant, widespread threat to human life, health, property or the environment, whether caused by accident, nature or human activity, and whether developing suddenly or as a result of complex, long-term processes. [ITU-R Report M2033]

Frequency harmonisation in Europe

The deployment of a pan-European system of mobile TETRA radiocommunications for public protection and disaster relief emerged in official EU documents as one of the buzzwords calling for the liberalization of the common market of mobile services in the early 1990s [EU Green Paper,1994]. In Europe the 380MHz6 frequency was allocated to the digital land mobile systems for emergency services, by a decision of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations - CEPT [ERC Dec(96)01] in 1996. Such a decision is binding on all CEPT member states. Another CEPT/ECC decision issued at the same time specified this and several other frequency bands as intended for a trans-European trunked radio system TETRA [ERC Dec(96) 04 ].

5 6

PPDR Public Protection and Disaster Relief 380-385/390-395MHz

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Subsequently CEPT complemented its frequency decisions on TETRA: by a decision of 2001 on frequencies7 for DMO8 , both in domestic networks and in border areas [ERC Dec(01)19], and by the decision on frequency channels in the band allocated to TETRA, which can be used for airplanes or helicopters supporting land operations [ECC DEC/(06)05]. In June 2008 CEPT/ECC issued a decision, which in anticipation of the increased significance of broadband applications, extended the possibilities of the allocation of frequencies to public protection and disaster relief services to the entire 380-470MHz band, [ECC DEC/(08)02]. This was a confirmation of the recommendations of the World Radiocommunication Conference ITU of 2003 [ITU-R Report M2033]. Harmonised decisions have replaced the earlier decisions for the narrowband versions of the TETRA system. Harmonised decisions superseded the earlier frequency decisions on narrowband TETRA versions. At the same time, some allocations for systems, which the market had not accepted as autonomous devices, were dropped, while the use of CDMA use was allowed in some bands9. Efforts are currently undertaken in various EU fora and in the member states to allocate new, harmonised spectrum bands for broadband services in PPDR radiocommunications networks. Various frequency bands are contemplated, including the use of LTE technology in a specially allocated band, e.g. above 400MHz.

CEPT Confrence europenne des administrations des postes et des telecommunications organisation established in 1959, which is the main platform for market, standards, regulatory and frequency harmonisation for its 48 government communications administrations from Europe. The organisation and its autonomous executive committees, including the ECC, which issues decisions concerning TETRA, is like a technical back office for the European Commission.

Standardisation
There is no doubt that ETSI work on an open standard provides an excellent opportunity for TETRA to achieve the status of the most mature of radio trunking systems. ETSI is working under a mandate from the European Commission, which no doubt strengthens its position. From ETSI's perspective, the history of the implementation of the TETRA standard is one of a major success. TETRA is currently used in more than 2000 networks in more than 117 countries, of which 65% are non-European states, including 30 in Latin America [Murgatroyd, 2011]. TETRA is still evolving and is modernised, just like the GSM cellular telephony system and its successive generations developed within ETSI. No international radio trunked system has achieved a global coverage comparable to TETRA, nor is there a system, which would offer significant benefits above and beyond those, achievable with TETRA. This is why ETSI is considering new, evolutionary TETRA variants, e.g. in synergy with LTE, rather than hypothetical new technical solutions. ETSI currently has no plans for standardisation work on an alternative, new radio trunking systems for public protection and disaster relief services. It is estimated that TETRA

446MHz 4-6 channels 24kHz width DMO Direct Mode Operation 9 410-430MHz and 450-470MHz
7 8

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networks, which are now in operation, can be developed for at least 25 more years10. Work on the development of the TETRA standard is conducted by the TETRA Technical Committee11 of ETSI. Earlier versions are superseded by a version developed in parallel, with enhanced TETRA data transmission capability - TEDS12. In ETSI TETRA represents several hundred different standardisation documents. The terms of reference for the TETRA standard have been defined as follows: The provision of user driven services, facilities and functionality as required by traditional Professional Mobile Radio (PMR)13 user organizations such as the Emergency Services, Government, Military, Transportation, Utility and Industrial organizations as well as Public Access Mobile Radio (PAMR)14 Operators. The evolution and enhancement of TETRA as required by the market with the provision of new services, facilities and functionality made possible by new technology innovations and standards. Further enhancements of the TETRA standard in order to provide increased benefits and optimization in terms of spectrum efficiency, network capacity, system performance, quality of service, security and other relevant parameters. The backward compatibility and integration of the new services, facilities and functionality with existing TETRA standards in order to future-proof the existing and future investments of TETRA users [ETSI ToR]

The fact that TETRA is an open standard implies, among others, the following benefits: Economies of scale provided by a large harmonised market served by several independent manufacturers and suppliers competing for the same business resulting in competitively priced solutions Greater choice of vendors for new products Greater choice of products for specialised applications Greater responsiveness to customer's needs by suppliers because of competition Evolution (instead of revolution) of the technology standard ensuring longevity and good return on investment for both users and suppliers Second source security if existing suppliers exit the market Strong incentives for innovation

However, work continues on technically advanced radiocommunications systems like Software Defined Radio and Cognitive Radio for military applications 11 TC TETRA 12 TEDS TETRA Enhanced Data Services 13 Professional Mobile Radio 14 Public Access Mobile Radio
10

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To seek synergy and compatibility with other technologies, work in the TETRA Technical Committee in ETSI includes participation in other fora, which may be related to the development of the TETRA standard: radiocommunications, security and frequencies. The promoted vision of TETRA is one of a harmonised communications platform for all kinds of operations carried out by PPDR services, also with No technology developed outside Europe the use of other technologies. for trunked radio communications (PMR) can offer any significant benefits above and ETSI conducts work on TETRA also in communication beyond what can be achieved using the with standards organisations in non-European TETRA technology. countries, leaders in innovative technologies: China15, Korea16, USA17 . Specialised requirements are developed for the TETRA standard depending on the specific needs of various user groups: Public Safety Transportation Utilities Government Military PAMR Commercial & Industry Oil & Gas Standardisation work is organised in the so-called Working Groups. Currently active WGs are: WG1 TETRA User Requirements / Services WG3 TETRA Network aspects WG4 TETRA High Speed Data WG5 TETRA Voice coding WG6 TETRA Security WG8 TETRA Direct Mode Operation.

EU funds are used to support standardisation works. The EU standardisation plan for the years 20102013 allocated EUR 100m for these purposes [Standardisation EU]. Like all other terminals, TETRA terminals come within the scope of EU directive 98/13/EC relating to telecommunications terminal equipment and satellite earth station equipment, including the mutual recognition of their conformity. The decision of the European Commission on common technical
CCSA China Communications Standards Associations TTA Telecommunications Technology Association 17 TIA Telecommunications Industry Association
15 16

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requirements for TETRA equipment was issued in 1999 [EC decision, 1999/645/EC]. This decision references the relevant ETSI standard.

European forum of government TETRA network users and administrators

Successive EU presidencies have been dealing with the harmonisation of the development of radiocommunications systems for PPDR services in the European forum within the Law Enforcement Working Group (LEWG)18. Poland is represented by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration. Recommendations to take action in this area, especially with regard to the need for fast data transmission, have been formulated towards the end of the Czech Presidency [10141 ENFOPOL]. In November 2009, under Swedish Presidency, the meeting of the LEWG was used as an opportunity to set up an informal working group of radiocommunications experts (RCEG)19, which is a contact forum for EU members' internal affairs administrations. The project calls for developing multilateral network interfaces in all TETRA versions used: TETRA/TETRA TETRAPOL/TETRAPOL TETRA/TETRAPOL The RCEG took up the harmonisation of network interfaces ISI20, thus supporting the efforts of the TETRA Association, including international roaming offered on a reciprocity basis on commercial terms and for a low fee. Another area of activity is the system development policy, which includes solutions capable of offering fast data transmission and the acquisition of new, harmonised frequencies required for the implementation of broadband services. Independently from the foregoing countries, which are already implementing or operating government TETRA networks for public protection and disaster relief services, have initiated another informal working group - PSRG21. The goal is to share experiences and identify common areas of interest. This group was created also in 2009, by Belgium, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, Romania and Switzerland. In 2010 the PSRG synthesised the available studies on user expectations in Germany, France, United Kingdom, Finland and the Netherlands, but it also summed up ETSI work. Given that users describe some applications as more or less useful in different applications, such studies are to help optimising the plan for the development of standards and implementation of applications, which may require fast data transmission. LEWG/RCEG/PSRG are good platforms for harmonisation efforts by internal affairs administrations, i.e. the representatives of TETRA users and administrators with telecommunications administrations CEPT/ECC, telecommunications standards fora ETSI, and to build technical contacts with public protection and disaster relief outside Europe, e.g. in USA.

LEWG Law Enforcement Working Group RCEG Radiocommunications Expert Group 20 ISI Inter System Interface 21 PSRG Public Safety Radiocommunications Group
18 19

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Cross-border cooperation
Another area of cooperation, also organised by the Council of the European Union is the implementation of the Schengen Agreement. The issues of the interoperability of the technical systems of police forces and border control services are dealt with by the so-called Schengen Catalogue, published in 2003. It has the status of a recommendation, which is why it is not directly binding, but it does point to cooperation mechanisms, which the member states should strive to achieve. The longterm goal specified in these recommendations is that radiocommunications systems used in border areas should be based on TETRA/TETRAPOL technology operating in the harmonised 380MHz band.

TETRA Association The TETRA MoU (Memorandum of Understanding), now known as the TETRA Association, was established in December 1994 to create a forum which would be a middle ground for all players building and using TETRA networks [TETRA MoU]. Joining the TETRA Association means joining a platform, which organises interested parties to act on their behalf. The TETRA Association gathers users, manufacturers, application providers, integrators, operators, test houses and telecom agencies. Today the TETRA Association represents more than 160 organisations from all continents of the world. The organisation also has more than 700 active individual members. The TETRA Association is a Limited Company and is registered in the United Kingdom.

Sector representation the TETRA Association

Stakeholders in the TETRA equipment and services market have founded the TETRA Association an interest group of the sector just like the operators and GSM 22 suppliers and recently, also technology vendors for FTTH 23 access networks. The TETRA Association hosts big annual congresses, which despite the highly specialised issues of an essentially niche market, gather several thousand participants. 2500 participants registered at the 13th International TETRA Congress held in Budapest in May 2011. It was attended by 90 speakers and participants of discussion panels, and nearly 100 exhibitors. During the year, the Association also organises regional events. For example, until the end of 2011, TETRA Association congresses will be held in Brazil, Mexico, United States, Russia, Norway, Philippines, Bangkok, Indonesia and India. The TETRA Association organises contacts with ETSI, CEPT, the European Commission and the ITU. A collective success of 2011 was the joint pushing through of access to the TETRA technology to the American market in the Federal Communications Commission FCC24. The TETRA Association is also an effective platform for multilateral contacts used to harmonise technical requirements and R&D efforts. There are more than a dozen working groups in the TETRA Association, which deal with many areas of development work. Here are some of them: Radio Spectrum Group25 - it works with EU institutions in charge of the radio frequency spectrum, but also with national telecommunications administrations, to promote the allocation of the necessary spectrum resources for the purposes of emergency communications;

GSMA, GSM Forum FTTH Council 24 FCC Federal Communications Commission 25 RSG Radio Spectrum Group
22 23

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Operator User Association - OUA26 - an information-sharing forum for TETRA users and operators. It synthesises user expectations; Technical forum FT27 - primary technical forum, also responsible for equipment certification; Security and Fraud Prevention Group SFPG28 - draws up technical reports and security recommendations. It works on developing compatible and complementary security policies of different vendors; Apps WG29 - a forum for discussion and sharing of experiences on applications. Recently it started offering the possibility to establish contacts with the developers of new applications; Forum of small and medium-sized companies (SME Forum). Much attention is currently focused on ensuring the interoperability of the IOP30 system. The TETRA Association organised a system for the certification of terminals. Manufacturers participating in the programme receive IOP certificates, guaranteed by the authority of the TETRA Association. This is to ensure that the users, manufacturers and integrators have a real market with multiple TETRA system and equipment vendors.

OUA Operator User Association FT Technical Forum 28 SFPG Security and Fraud Prevention Group 29 Apps WG Applications Working Group 30 IOP Interoperability
26 27

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DIGITAL RADIO TRUNKING SYSTEMS ALTERNATIVE TO TETRA TECHNOLOGY

DMR
The replacement of analogue radiocommunications equipment with digital equipment is a natural consequence of technological progress, although mobile radio manufacturers still keep their simpler and cheaper analogue mobile radios in their product lines and still offer technical support for their analogue systems. Organisations, which use mobile radios in both unlicensed and licensed bands, as well as more demanding users operating analogue radio trunking networks, e.g. the MPT1327 type, are looking for more modern solutions, relatively inexpensive, which offer easier network resources management and also, a more efficient utilization of the increasingly valuable radio frequency spectrum resources. Even users, who care less about better transmission or functional parameters, will find power economy, i.e. longer battery life a practical argument for migrating from analogue to digital systems. Manufacturers of equipment for radio trunking networks have drawn on the experience of other segments of the radiocommunications market. Since 2003 ETSI has been conducting work on the DMR31 standard for small PMRs. Initially, this work encountered some problems and even stalled for a while, mostly because groups of interest in the market were not quite convinced that such a standard was needed at all, given the progress in the development of other systems. Some mobile radio manufacturers offered their proprietary network solutions, which usually operated autonomously and did not appreciate the benefits of standardisation. The fundamental ETSI document for the DMR standard was published in 2005, while the first devices complying with this standard made it to the market around 2007. Work on the standardisation of the digital version of systems using the somewhat less expensive FDMA32 signal transmission was a bit delayed, but the dPMR standard was also published in 2005 [dPMR]. Experienced manufacturers, like Motorola, Selex or Sepura, who are heavily investing in the development of TETRA technology, also have DMR-compliant mobile radios in their product ranges. The marketing policies of these companies with regard to TETRA and DMR clearly show that these solutions are not necessarily addressed to the same customer groups, even though they are complementary to a certain extent. Both standards, TETRA and DMR will be probably competing in the segment of semiprofessional applications and in those user groups, which have relatively conventional requirements with regard to the systems' functionalities. TETRA is offered for professional applications with uncompromising requirements, especially those, where reliable and non-stop communications are crucial to the operation of an organisation, including public protection and disaster relief services33. Currently, there are no plans to offer TETRA to individual consumers.

31 32

Digital Mobile Radio FDMA Frequency Division Multiple Access a transmission technology in systems serving multiple users, allowing the sharing of available bands through the allocation of appropriate frequencies. Systems operating in DMR and TETRA standards use TDMA Time Division Multiple Access, which allows multiple users to access the same radio channel by dividing channels into time slots. Comparing the technical pros and cons of the systems is not the object of this report, though we can say that the outcome would not be obvious. We can only comment that it is rather the market, i.e. business considerations, which are decisive for the development of TDMA and FDMA technologies, rather than the inability to solve technical problems. 33 On the American market of government services it is the TIA Project 25 (P25) standard. This system, which is practically confined to US public security services (police, firefighters, government networks). Even though there are several vendors on the market, it is largely dominated by one manufacturer, which contributes to the high prices of these devices (US $4000-6000). This is also due to network organisation relatively large cells imply high-powered mobile radios.

TETRA for Poland

The TETRA system is currently used by some very small organisations, equipped with a dozen or so radios, but it has been specifically designed for government public protection and disaster relief services, which have to retain the ability to operate and cooperate in mission-critical situations. For many civilian organisations, including business organisations, an uncompromising approach to service availability, reliability and continuity is also the key criterion in the choice of communications systems. In this sense, the difference between TETRA and DMR is more than just the theoretical outcome of a different approach to system design, but very concrete, practical solutions, e.g. the approach to frequency availability for radio calls. DMR and radiocommunications networks created on its basis are first of all an improved digital option of the offer aimed at the market of the current users of analogue radio trunking networks. In the case of DMR, the suitability of the offer for various applications is more important than a high level of reliability in access to services. This is why the platform of the DMR standard is sometimes used in mobile radios operating in a variety of frequency bands, but sometimes at the expense of quality and service parameters. This is mostly about the different conditions of radio waves' propagation in different frequency bands and operating environments, but also about the ability to use services associated with the radio layer. These are also offers intended for different user categories, starting with those looking for inexpensive consumer products, through many simple or more advanced business applications, up to the segment of professional users who have specialised requirements. One should also remember that it is unlikely for standardisation on the DMR market to go beyond the ability to integrate terminals from different vendors in a single network. In the case of TETRA, due to the legal requirement for the cooperation of various services, the emphasis is on providing interfaces ensuring the interoperability of different networks. The decision on the roll-out of a nationwide TETRA network in Poland has been put off for years, leading some potential users to seek alternative solutions. It is sometimes necessary, when radiocommunications systems in operation urgently require replacement or modernisation due to wear and tear. However, persons making local decisions in some cities on the purchase of new DMR radiocommunications systems for public protection and disaster relief services should keep in mind that this is not a cheaper alternative to the target nationwide TETRA system, but a makeshift solution, capable of limited evolution, which will not guarantee full interoperability with the future nationwide system.

CDMA2000 - GoTa
The need to analyse radio trunking networks built on the CDMA2000 platform in the 420MHz band arose out of the market entry of Nordisk Polska in the Polish market. This is an affiliated company of Polkomtel, which intends to offer such services.
CDMA 2000 IN THE 450MHZ BAND CDMA2000 is a family of several versions of standards used in public cellular networks, which competes with UMTS networks in some markets outside Europe. UMTS in turn, is a standard developed by ETSI, as the so-called third generation (3G) for GSM currently the most popular standard for cellular networks. Both cellular telephony systems use CDMA34 for access to the radio transmission medium, selected, among other reasons, for its resilience to harmful interference.

Code Division Multiple Access The basic standardization documents for CDMA have been developed by the American Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA). Most of the patents for key CDMA technologies are owned by the American company Qualcomm, which means that maufacturers of devices using CDMA technology have to pay royalties to Qualcomm.
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The shutdown of old public analogue cellular networks operating in many countries in the 450MHz band on the basis of the NMT system developed in the Nordic countries offered an opportunity for CDMA200035 networks to enter the European market. PTK Centertel, a company of the TP group, operated the first NMT450 network in Poland. At the turn of the 1990s, NMT network operators tried to develop a new, digital version of a GSM standard for the 450MHz band within ETSI, but they found out that these efforts lacked the practical support from manufacturers. In 2003 a European governmental CEPT36 conference found that it will be more advantageous to use CDMA37 technology in this band in Europe. At that time, there were already several CDMA2000 networks operating in the 450MHz band in various parts of the world. In Poland, unlike many other European operators, Centertel retained its frequency assignment in the 450MHz band, modifying its purpose for providing fixed telephony, so-called universal service to remote rural areas and fixed Internet access, using modified NMT450 network infrastructure for some time. Later, it rolled out a new CDMA 450 network, using mostly radio network technology supplied by the Chinese manufacturer Huawei Technologies and offered fixed wireless Internet access, also mostly in rural areas, which lacked modern cable plant. The organisation38 gathering technology vendors, operators and other organisations interested in the development of CDMA has recently identified some 118 CDMA450 network operators differing in class and size in 62 countries [CDG]. This includes such vast markets as Russia, or Brazil. These are commercial networks, which mostly offer mobile or fixed Internet access, but some also offer cellular telephony services. The CDMA450 category conventionally includes also the neighbouring bands, i.e. various CDMA2000 systems operating between 410 and 490MHz, which includes the network rolled out in Poland by Nordisk Polska, which operates in the 420 band. No European CDMA450 operator other than Nordisk Polska offers PMR services.
NORDISK MOBILTELEFON PTS, the Swedish NRA decided at the beginning of 2004 that the 450MHz licence held by Telia Sonera would expire at the end of 2007. Given that very shortly the utilization of these frequencies became negligible, PTS launched an auction, in which 5 organisations took part. Nordisk Mobiltelefon AS offered 86m SEK and won the auction. The entry of the new player in the Swedish market stirred mobile operators and initially, there were even attempts to challenge the NRA's decision. Shortly thereafter Nordisk obtained a CDMA450 licence in Norway and in both countries, it concluded agreements with other operators on the use of their masts. The plan to build an operator for all of Scandinavia fell through when Nordisk lost a tender in Finland. However, it did obtain licences in Denmark, Iceland, Ireland and Poland.

Nordisk owners adopted an ambitious strategy of conquering new mobile radiocommunications market, which had not yet reached the saturation phase, because mobile telephony operators are still focusing on the most profitable mass segments of the market. They have probably assumed that the greatest advantage of CDMA450 is the frequency, which offers large area coverage, i.e. an opportunity to capture mobile Internet access in rural areas throughout Scandinavia. Even preliminary estimates showed that this would require heavy investment outlays, which in Sweden alone in 2005 were estimated at SEK

For good order's sake, we should also mention Sferia the company, which built CDMA telephone networks in several Polish cities, operating in the 850MHz band 36 CEPT European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations 37 ETSI also took up standardization work on CDMA 38 CDG DCMA Development Group [CDG]
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2b. It is for this reason that strong investors were invited to join in: the Swedish-Norwegian group Orkla, Siminn from Iceland and Qualcomm, the owner of many key CDMA patents. Nordisk tested several vendors of CDMA networks, but finally opted for Chinese manufacturers ZTE and Huawei, probably also because they enjoyed advantageous financing from the China Development Bank. Moreover, ZTE could contribute significant added value its proprietary GoTa radio trunking system. This fell in with the strategy of capturing new markets. The plan to offer radio trunking services was attractive e.g. in Norway, where a relatively small number of base stations located next to fiords could offer state-of-the-art communications for all marine craft in coastal waters. Nordisk also ordered a specially developed model of a handheld mobile radio. Rolling out a radio trunking network based on the Chinese GoTa system also became the main plan for Poland. However, Nordisk investment projects started to gradually lose their momentum. Bringing in a new American investor, rebranding and selling off foreign companies, also in Poland, did not help. The key problem was the debt to the China Development Bank, exceeding EUR 43m [Svenolof,2009]. In November 2008 the company launched a recovery process, but to no avail and it declared bankruptcy in February 2009. Access Industries, an American shareholder took over shares in the Swedish and Norwegian companies. These companies now operate in Sweden and Norway as NET1. Ericsson supplies CDMA450 network equipment for NET1. Ericsson also manages the network. Cooperation with ZTE was dropped and the whole network was promptly replaced between May and December 2010. The network now has 800 base stations and offers 90% coverage in Sweden, Norway and Denmark [Ericsson, 2011]. NET 1 does not offer radio trunking services. It specialises in mobile Internet access services, but is actively looking for niche applications, e.g. for special M2M applications in land transportation and coastal navigation, electric power industry [NET 1, 2011].
NORDISK POLSKA When the tender for the assignment of frequencies for a mobile radio trunking network was launched at the end of 2005, it was clear to the Polish NRA (URTiP/UKE) that the TETRA network project, which was to be built for public protection and disaster relief services would be seriously delayed. Apart from security policy considerations, it was difficult to assume in such a situation that the government TETRA network could be used by users other than the public sector. What could have been anticipated was the increased demand for radio trunking services, e.g. due to the need to shut down networks operating in the bands allocated to new military needs, following Poland's accession to the NATO in 1999.

To harmonize the allocation of frequencies for radio trunking systems in Europe, the CEPT/ERC issued a decision in 1996, in which it specified the frequency bands for commercial systems39. Poland opted for the 410-420MHz/420-430MHz bands, but freeing these bands required recovering them from the Ministry of Defence, which happened when the military bands were changed after Poland's accession to the NATO. In 2003 the President of URTiP invited tenders for TETRA-type networks. There was not much interest and only 7 decisions were issued to urban networks with local coverage. This led to the development of a plan to allocate the remaining frequencies to a nationwide system. The tender covering two duplex channels in the 420MHz40 band was announced by the President of URTiP on 13 December 2005, but the tender was awarded by the new NRA the President of the Office of Electronic Communications (UKE) on10 May 2006 [UKE, 10.05.2006].
ERC Dec(96)04 duplex channels, 1.25 MHz wide with 10MHz spacing: 412,5-413,75/422,5-423,75MHz and 413,75415/423,75-425,0 MHz
39 40Two

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In keeping with the principle of technological neutrality promoted in EU policy, the tender did not specify the technology to be used to roll out the radio trunking network. It only specified a certain general set of services, which should be provided in the network: voice services text messages (addressed directly or broadcast) packet-switched data transmission simultaneous transmission of voice and data group calls and closed user groups and dynamic user group management fast call set-up automatic priority call queuing when the network is busy (overloaded) direct access to other public networks (PTSN, data transmission networks, etc.) access to emergency calls caller identification

Only one of the three offers submitted passed to the second stage of the tender. UKE decided that the other two did not conform to the requirements of tender documentation. The tender was awarded to the company Polskie Sieci Dyspozytorskie, which obtained the maximum number of points. It offered PLN 16.1m for the right to use the frequencies until the end of 2020. Nordisk Mobiltelefon AB was a shareholder in the company. The company soon changed its name to Nordisk Polska sp. z o.o., organised itself and went on to cooperate with China's ZTE, entered into an agreement with Emitel41 on the use of masts for the deployment of base stations, started up a backbone network and a network management centre. The problems of the Swedish owner, burdened with significant cost of investment in progress, who provided Internet access services in its own name, but also wholesale services to Multimedia Polska, have led to a situation where the owners started to look for a buyer for Nordisk Polska. After several changes in the capital structure, Polkomtel SA, one of Poland's four dominant mobile operators became the company's sole owner. Joining a strong capital group provided Nordisk Polska with the much needed growth potential. By June 2011 the Office of Electronic Communications had issued more than 500 radio permits to Nordisk Polska [UKE 06.06.2011 ]. In its offer posted on the web the company is currently offering only fixed CDMA radio telephony service inside numbering zones and mobile and fixed Internet access. On 21 March 2011 Polkomtel officially announced the launch of its CDMA Radio Trunking System. Polkomtel's press release did not emphasise the fact that the system was operated by Nordisk Polska [Polkomtel, 21.03.2011]. For the time being, this move was mostly interest of Polkomtel, which needed to consolidate its image as a financial investor building a strategic group of companies and strengthens its presence in the market of wireless services. One should remember that this was accompanied by parallel

Emitel Sp. z o.o. a company of the TP capital group, main operator of terrestrial infrastructure of radio and TV stations and masts with a nationwide coverage. The company offers space on its masts throughout Poland to other telecommunications operators. In June 2011 the the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection approved the acquisition of the company by the Montagu private equity fund for PLN 1.7b
41

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negotiations with prospective investors, who were to take over all of Polkomtel in a deal, which was estimated at PLN 18b. As goes for Nordisk Polska, who offered its services on its own, a new business model is being developed, in which Polkomtel will be in charge of marketing and sales. The frequencies used by Nordisk Polska are intended for a radio trunking network, which implies the obligation to launch the sale of these services, but the technical and commercial ability of Polkomtel or Nordisk Polska to provide and manage such services will be developed gradually, as they gain experience and fine tune their technical solutions. Projects implemented for clients, who already use radio trunking services in the CDMA network of Nordisk Polska are undertakings, which should be treated as pilot projects for the time being. One must remember that the ability to use CDMA2000 technology in the 420MHz band to offer mobile Internet access on a commercial basis, like Orange450, will be crucial to the assessment of the business potential of Nordisk Polska. This service is already offered under the Polkomtel brand, as the opportunity to take advantage of the vast sales network of the mobile operator and its marketing experience is a major asset. CDMA420 is a technical complement to mobile Internet services offered by Polkomtel. Greater coverage achieved in the 450MHz band is an opportunity to extend mobile Internet to areas, in which the roll-out of 3G cellular network has so far been unviable. However, from a strategic perspective, Polkomtel may find it more interesting to use CDMA networks for the growing market catering to M2M (machine to machine) services. This will be a quickly expanding market in the next few years, serving all kinds of measurement instruments, e.g. in the electrical power industry, sensors, control systems, intelligent transport systems and smart urban infrastructure. Frequency resources in the bands allocated to individual users' telephones may prove insufficient for the needs of this market and many countries, including those, which had never built CDMA450 networks before, are contemplating the use of the 450MHz band for M2M solutions. This report does not purport to analyse the mobile Internet access market, but there is no doubt that tapping this opportunity will bear on the financial results of Nordisk Polska, giving it more "breathing space" for the implementation of a new technology of radio trunking system and opening up new markets for such services. So far, Polkomtel has been offering CDMA Internet access as a product separate from other mobile Internet access services in its network42. The construction of tariff plans is different. Many clients may find this distinction difficult to understand. But DGT43, which supplies CDMA modems to Polkomtel, can also offer dual-system modems CDMA450 and GSM EDGE 900/1800 [DGT 2011]. DGT is also offering CDMA450 modules for smart electrical energy, water and heat meters. If Nordisk Polska the operator of a CDMA450 network wishes to expand radio trunking services, then in addition to developing its limited frequency resources, it will also have to decide on security issues, because physical separation from commercial cellular networks is an often used argument in favour of the roll-out of separate radio networks for special purposes. Offering Internet access services, including M2M services, on a commercial basis, when radio trunking networks are not yet fully functional, profitable or reliable may be a good solution to promote a company's survival and strengthening, but also a potential problem in negotiations with customers, who have been earlier indoctrinated about the benefits of physically separate networks catering to the special needs of services in charge of mission-critical applications.
Polkomtel offers mobile Internet access mostly under the iPlus brand DGT Polish producer and integrator of telecommunications equipment, an innovative private firm from Gdask, one of the most experienced telecommunications technology vendors on the Polish market
42 43

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GOTA Nordisk Polska obtained the right to use the frequencies and declared the roll-out of a radio trunking network in the 420MHz band allocated to these purposes. It opted for the CDMA450 technology, because the Chinese supplier ZTE used the CDMA2000 platform to develop GoTa a technological and application overlay, which has made it possible to provide and manage radio trunking services. The Chinese manufacturer selected the CDMA2000 platform on the assumption that the opportunity to achieve much better data transmission parameters will give it an edge over TETRA.

ZTE declares that GoTa has open architecture44, but it is clearly a proprietary system, given that for the time being, ZTE is the only producer of equipment for the system. ZTE says it has some 120 patents related to GoTa. GoTa is a hardware platform, which includes a base station subsystem, dispatcher's subsystem, switching subsystem, packet switching subsystem, special terminals and a subsystem for the services layer [GoTa (a)]. Hence, caution is advisable in comparing TETRA with known and proven in scores of implementations CDMA2000 network parameters45. The features of the Chinese system, which concern specific trunkingtype services, depend largely on the technical solutions implemented in GoTa. This applies in particular to such typical trunking-type services as group calls or direct mode operation. ZTE uses a dozen or so networks as references for GoTa, but they have been poorly described. Nearly all of them, including those in China, are commercial networks and this list has not been confirmed. For example, Norway is cited as a successful implementation. This concerns the NET1 operator, whose predecessor tested one of the first GoTa implementations after 2005, but like the Swedes, NET1 dropped ZTE and replaced the equipment with CDMA2000 solutions supplied by Ericsson. Among the dozen or so GoTa implementations boasted by ZTE, one would be at pain to find operators providing PMR services, such as Mobilink from Chile, whose networks covers the whole of the area of Chile's capital Santiago [Mobilink] and caters to the needs of municipal services and at least some disaster relief services. Considering all the above factors, it would be difficult to make an impartial technical assessment of the GoTa radio trunking system in the network of Nordisk Polska, by e.g. drawing up a table comparing GoTa and TETRA, especially that we should assume that the Chinese system is still at the development stage. Working with the operator, the Chinese supplier may improve the system, including its functionalities, even if this should require investing in research and development. The lack of references or unconvincing references for GoTa projects in other countries, as well as the lack of comparable, verifiable third-party data is no doubt a major weakness of the offer of Nordisk Polska, as a system to be used by services in mission-critical situations. In this case one would also have to consider the sensitive aspect of trust in the security and reliability of a system remaining under the exclusive technological control of the Chinese vendor.
CUSTOM SERVICE OFFERING One serious argument that Polkomtel may use in offering radio trunking services in the network of Nordisk Polska to public protection and disaster relief services could be that the users would avoid taking investment risks. This is an economic argument a service model under which, like in the case of typical

GoTa Global open Trunking architecture [GoTa] E.g direct telephone calls at the push of a button, like in mobile radios, push-to-talk or PTT has been developed for CDMA. It is for the same reason, to capture customers among walkie-talkie users, that group calls were introduced. The service was offered mostly in the American market, but it has had a verly limited take-up. Call set-up time and reliability are far worse than in professional radio trunking networks. A standard for an identical service has been also developed for GSM networks, but few European operators were interested in offering the service.
44 45

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commercial cellular services, the operator would offer a new, better service in a network it had built on its own and which it operates. This model has proved itself to a certain extent in the commercial telecommunications market, because operators are driven by competitive pressure, fearing that their users may switch operators to take advantage of better offerings by other operators. In the case of highly specialised services, where there is no competition, a very detailed contract is required to ensure quality, reliability and security. The experience of countries, which had adopted an outsourcing service model for government services dealing with critical missions shows that achieving terms satisfactory to both parties in negotiations with a private partner is a process, in which the parties cannot afford compromises. In the case of an operator, who had rolled out a network initially intended for the provision of services to commercial clients, it will be difficult to negotiate a posteriori the quality, performance, reliability and security features required in mission-critical applications, while anticipated savings to be achieved by passing the investment risk to the private operator may prove illusive.

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INTEROPERABILITY ISSUES
Interoperability Certificate
The TETRA Association launched an interoperability certification system46. The involvement of manufacturers technology vendors will be the key to success. The purpose is to ensure that the users, manufacturers and integrators can enjoy the benefits of a real market made up of many vendors of TETRA systems and equipment. More than a dozen companies have decided to join the programme47: 3T Communications Artevea Digital Cleartone Telecoms Damm Cassidian Harris Hytera Communications Corp. Ltd. Motorola Piciorgros Rohde & Schwarz Professional Mobile Radio Rohill Technologies Selex Communications OTE Sepura Teltronic Thales Unimo Technology

The Italian ISCOM48 Institute, which operates the accredited laboratory of the Italian Economic Development Ministry, carries out certification measurements for the participants of the TETRA Association programme. A lot of equipment has already undergone certification, which makes it possible to offer equipment from alternative vendors in most of the networks currently deployed. Certificates are large 80-90 page documents, which include reports from measurement tests. This voluntary certification system makes it easier to define the principles for system implementation, development of equipment for specialist applications, ensures continuity in the introduction of innovations and ultimately, brings about lower equipment prices. However, IOP certification is not a system designed to confirm type-approval or compatibility requirements49, allowing the use of equipment on the basis of general requirements. From a user's perspective, the IOP certificate enables them to choose equipment according to its features: functionalities, design, display, technology supported frequencies battery capacity (operating time) security features producer, service support, availability of accessories price, warranty, payment terms

ISI inter systems interface

IOP interoperability certificate At the end of Q3 2010 48 ISCOM - Istituto Superiore delle Comunicazioni e delle Tecnologie dell'Informazione 49 E.g. R&TTE, CE
46 47

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Much emphasis is currently placed on the development of the ISI inter-systems interface. Work on the ISI inter-systems interface for TETRA is carried out in several fora, both in the working group representing the internal affairs administrations of the member states, in the ETSI and CEPT fora, and in the TETRA association community. The immediate reason is the need for cross-border cooperation between public protection and disaster relief services. Work continues in two directions. First, technical requirements, legal issues, and roaming settlement terms are developed. The second issue, strategically more important, is to ensure the technical capabilities for the full interoperability and interconnection of neighbouring countries' networks. Work on ISI has a long history, as it actually dates back to the beginning of the operation of European networks. Pilot operational technical tests on network interoperability were organised in the German city of Aachen, near the Dutch and Belgian borders in 2003 [ISI,2010]. The tests identified the need for additional harmonisation in the interoperation of IT systems: maps showing the movement of vehicles operated by the services harmonisation of terminology, descriptions and other language issues unification of procedures

These tests have led to the development of the requirements in 2005 and 2008, later published as ETSI document [ETSI TR 101 448]. These issues are also the object of work carried out in the Police Cooperation Working Group (PCWG) operating within the Council of the European Union.

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Phil Kidner TETRA Association Chief Executive

Many functionalities have already been fine tuned and implemented in the TETRA technology. TETRA has more functionalities than any other professional communications system, but of course, this does not mean that any user uses all of them. Rather than that, a user can choose those, which are adapted to the specific nature of his duties. When a supplier agrees on a TETRA system implementation plan with a user, he does not really need to adapt anything to the user's needs. Usually, the user only needs to be shown how it works. We have also observed that users, who initially simply expect TETRA to offer better operation than their previous communications systems, need to be taught to use its capabilities. The sharing of experiences between operators and suppliers in the forum of the TETRA Association emphasises the importance of the training phase, which averts misunderstanding on the one hand, but on the other, it helps streamlining the user's organisation. The next few years will see many new applications, because people want to invest in their development. Vehicle location is just one example. Many of its applications already work so well that they have practically become a part of the system. Inspiration from users helps communications systems to become smarter. Today, when most states are struggling with the consequences of the economic crisis, users wish to use technology to reduce operating costs and the operators agree on appropriate solutions with the manufacturers. TETRA is a voice and data transmission system. Already for quite a while we have been observing that there are many functionalities in mission critical situations, which use data transmission. TEDS was very much needed, but it will be soon insufficient, so somebody came up with the idea of using LTE capabilities for these purposes and we are now working to make it come true. The economic crisis requires the optimisation of CAPEX and reduction of OPEX. Hence, we are discussing the evolution of operating models, increased competencies for operators, who are charged with new tasks, become autonomous and in many countries; they act as outside companies offering their services to government agencies.

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TETRA DEVELOPMENT
Achieving the integration and seamless interoperation of all IT and telecommunications systems, both narrowband and broadband, used by services responsible for mission critical situations is a vision of TETRA strongly supported by standardisation work carried out within ETSI. New systems are emerging, which integrate various radio technologies, e.g. TETRA with Wi-Fi, RFID50, NFC51, satellite systems. There is an increasing demand for demanding data transmission applications, which will improve the management of rescue operations, like e.g. real-time transmission of images from incident sites. Increased activity on the part of application developers, who are trying to expand the functionality of current TETRA networks, but are also working on new applications for public protection and disaster relief services is one of the results of standardisation works. At the same time, new markets for TETRA network applications are emerging in municipal services, transportation and other specialised professional uses.

Pierre Tournassoud
Alcatel-Lucent Vice President, Strategic Industries

The materialisation of this vision means more than a standardisation challenge, i.e. the integration of information systems with fast data transmission networks, but also the need to obtain new frequency resources. Interest groups interested in developing TETRA are striving to use the development potential of LTE, a standard developed for the next generation of public mobile cellular radiocommunications, but research also continues on the application of new technologies and new areas of the spectrum. Even though LTE is only at the development stage and commercial cellular networks are very cautious about its implementation, it already offers very advantageous and technically effective solutions for fast data transmission. Moreover, LTE is very efficient with respect to the use of the radio spectrum. During the recent TETRA

At the TETRA 2011 World Congress, Cassidian and ourselves have informed the community interested in the development of TETRA that we will be undertaking a joint effort to use the potential of both leading companies to develop broadband technologies, which have so far not been available in the 400MHz band. This joint solution will support services based on broadband data transmission, such as mobile video security for security systems, location-based mobile video for vehicles, integrated smart transportation systems and other advanced broadband data transmission services complementing the existing TETRA functionalities. We are hopeful that if the governments of European states decide to allocate a part of the 400MHz band for public protection and disaster relief networks, LTE may take only a few years to start supporting the development of a new generation of networks and applications.

50 51

RFID Radio Frequency Identification - tagging of objects, resources NFC Near Field Communication - technology developed for wireless electronic payments, access cards

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World Congress held this year in Budapest, Cassidian, one of the world's leading suppliers of TETRA networks and Alcatel-Lucent declared that they were going to cooperate in the development of broadband LTE applications for public protection and disaster relief services. Several months ago Motorola issued a similar communication on cooperation in LTE development with Ericsson.

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SOURCES
10141 ENFOPOL http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/09/st10/st10141.en09.pdf CDG http://www.cdg.org/technology/cdmatechnology.asp EC decision, 1999/645/EC http://eurlex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=DD:13:24:31999D0645:PL:PDF DGT 2011 http://www.dgtwireless.com/products/modems/multimodems dPmr http://www.dpmr-mou.org/dpmr-members.htm ECC DEC/(06)05 http://www.erodocdb.dk/Docs/doc98/official/pdf/ECCDEC0605.PDF ECC DEC/(08)02 http://www.erodocdb.dk/Docs/doc98/official/pdf/ECCDEC0802.PDF ERC Dec(01)19 http://www.erodocdb.dk/Docs/doc98/official/pdf/DEC0119.PDF ERC Dec(96) 04 http://www.erodocdb.dk/Docs/doc98/official/pdf/DEC9604E.PDF ERC Dec(96)01 http://www.erodocdb.dk/Docs/doc98/official/pdf/DEC9601E.PDF Ericsson, http://www.ericsson.com/article/net1-scandinavia_1595655399_c ETSI ToR http://portal.etsi.org/tetra/TETRA_ToR.asp ETSI TR 101 448 http://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_tr/101400_101499/101448/01.01.01_60/tr_101448v010101p.pd f GoTa http://wwwen.zte.com.cn/en/solutions/wireless/gota/200812/t20081219_160249.html GoTa a http://wwwen.zte.com.cn/en/solutions/wireless/gota/200709/t20070919_157384.html Heikkonen, Pesonen, Saaristo, You and your TETRA radio, IT Press-Edita Publishing, 2004 http://www.itpress.biz/ COMIX 421, Communications border areas http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/09/st10/st10141.en09.pdf Interconnection, 2009 http://www.tetraassociation.com/Library/Documents/TETRA_Resources/Library/InterconnectingTETRAsystems.pdf ISI, 20101 http://www.tetraassociation.com/Library/Documents/TETRA_Resources/Library/Reports/TETRA%20and%20the%20Inter %20System%20Interface%20v1.2.pdf ITU-R Report M2033 http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itu-r/opb/rep/R-REP-M.2033-2003-PDF-E.pdf LEWP, 06-2011 http://register.consilium.europa.eu/pdf/en/11/st12/st12278.en11.pdf mobilink http://www.mobilink.cl/ Murgatroyd Brian, ETSI 2010 Activity report, Motorla Ltd. http://portal.etsi.org/tetra/ActivityReport2010.asp NET 1, http://www.net1.se/ Polityka 1996, Polityka Rozwoju Telekomunikacji, Ministerstwo cznoci, maj1996 (Policy 1996, Telecommunications Development Policy, Ministry of Communications, May 1996) Polkomtel, 21.03.2011 http://www.biuroprasowe.plus.pl/note.php?id=732

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RSC, 2010 http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/policy/ecomm/radio_spectrum/_document_storage/other_docs /ppdr_workshop_300311/ppdr_workshop_summary.pdf Schengen http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cmsUpload/VOL4EN.pdf Standarisation EU http://www.ipq.pt/backfiles/standardisation_action_plan_december2010_en.pdf Svenolof Karlsson & Anders Lugn., THE FATE OF NORDISK MOBILTELEFON, http://ericssonhistory.com/templates/Ericsson/EricssonBook/Article.aspx?id=3863&epslanguage=EN TC TETRA http://portal.etsi.org/portal/server.pt/community/TETRA/338 TETRA MoU http://www.tetramou.com/Library/Documents/TETRA_Association/MoU_Oct06.pdf UKE 06.06.2011 http://www.uke.gov.pl/uke/redir.jsp?place=galleryStats&id=43373 UKE 12.05.2011 http://www.uke.gov.pl/_gAllery/30/18/3018.pdf Towards a personal communications environment: Green Paper on a common approach to mobile and personal communications in the European Union, COM(94) 145, 27.04.1994

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About the author:

Piotr Rutkowski started his consultancy "rotel" in 1990. He specialises in the strategies of telecommunications market and electronic media development, the legal and regulatory system for the electronic networks and services, public private partnership, innovation, as well as information security and protection of critical infrastructure. He is the Vice-President of the Mikromakro Institute. He has worked with many leading companies of the sector and took part in a number of regulatory projects commissioned by the European Commission in Poland and other EU member states. In 2007 he served as an advisor to the NRA of Bosnia & Herzegovina. Often invited to work with Parliament committees, as a permanent expert or advisor, he took part in drafting the telecommunications law and in the transposition of EU law into the Polish legal system. In the years 2006/2007 he served as an advisor to the Special Services Coordinator for telecommunications and the protection of critical infrastructure. A regular writer of the Computerworld weekly. In 2009 he was nominated to the European Prize for Journalism for his publications on the Community issues. He is a lecturer at the Postgraduate Study on Information Society at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. A co-author of Poland's growth strategies under the National Foresight Programme "Poland 2020" - "Information and communications technologies". Actively involved in the preparation of local governments' broadband network projects. Piotr Rutkowski graduated from the Warsaw University, where he studied physics and astronomy. In addition to completing a postgraduate study in photography and image information, he also graduated from a postgraduate study in ICT security at the National Defence University. Contact: prutkowski@mikromakro.pl Photographs by Piotr Rutkowski (except photograph on p. 19 courtesy of Motorola)

MIKROMAKRO INSTITUTE FOUNDATION a centre of excellence, a think-tank promoting strategic approach to the state, society and economy both on the micro scale (i.e. at the level of local action groups, local governments or companies) and on the macro scale (at the national and global level). Our motto is "Programmamus futura".
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