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TETRA modems Though these other TETRA systems are used mainly for voice communication, City Power is expanding its pioneering use of data, with support from Ikwezi’s engineering team. Ikwezi is supplying TETRA radio modems from Funk-Electronic Piciorgros in Germany, and initially it has taken delivery of more than 1000. “The request is there from City Power to monitor things like substations and street lighting”, says Errol Howard, head of digital at Ikwezi. “So far we are running on three projects at the moment, one being the mini-substations in the outlying areas. Nobody knows if they’re up and running or down, so we are able now to use these modems to trigger through to the control room and notify what the error is. So we can monitor right through from A to Z.” “The street lighting was an interesting project”, Errol Baker adds. “They had done it via GSM, and I think they had been broken into three times and all the SIM cards had been stolen. And then obviously the bills that would be generated were really out of control! That is a major problem.” Another current project is to monitor prepaid metering, to guard against fraud. “We’ve got quite a variety that we are able to do just to get the ball rolling”, comments Mr Howard. “Those are the value-adds that we’ve added to the networks”, Errol Baker sums up. “Now it’s taken off in City Power, it’s starting at Tshwane, we are ready for Mbombela as well. The scope of TETRA for us... we are only in its infancy, we really believe. There are new projects that we are busy with – but TETRA projects don’t happen overnight, so it takes a few years before that happens.” City Power hopes to bring other public-service user groups on to its network in due course, to share communications costs, cut mobile phone bills and improve efficiency. However, Errol Baker believes that the sharing could go further and wider in the future, using inter-system interfaces to combine neighbouring authorities into a larger network. TETRA’s ability to support large numbers of user-groups independently would enable their communications to remain separate. “In the East Rand, now called Ekurhuleni, they would like something similar”, says Errol Howard. “But instead of putting up their own network they could just tap into City Power. They could operate as a totally separate user group, but in times of need they could interlink. They’re quite keen to go that route, but then they would need their own node in existence. All they’d do is put up their base stations and hop on board. “And we’re doing the same in the West – it used to be called the West Rand, now called Mogale. Exactly the same scenario. There’s more than enough capacity in the network; it’s just the coverage, which we’ll assist because they can contribute to more base stations, more high sites, and everybody benefits at the end of the day. “Fortunately, they are all municipalities we’re dealing with. Within the municipalities, all using the same Rohill infrastructure, it’s quite easy for us to do. It’s excellent equipment, Rohill. I love Rohill!” World Cup wins City Power gained early experience of network-sharing during the 2010 World Cup football tournament in South Africa, when the fire and ambulance service and other city departments joined the new system. Immediately it offered a big improvement in flexibility over City Power’s old analogue radio equipment, which consisted of simple VHF repeaters. “We only had five channels, which was the problem”, recalls Thabo Litsili. “But now with TETRA we can create as many groups as we like.” Training City Power’s staff to use the new radios was straightforward, he says. “It was not a problem, because it was basically the same as the cellphones which they already used. We did the whole change management thing here with training, awareness campaigns and all that before we implemented the system.” But he adds: “There was big resistance in the beginning because the guys had to give up their cellphones where they could make private calls. So it was quite a challenge to get them to use the system!” Another challenge was to persuade staff to accept the GPS location feature of the new TETRA radios, which enables managers to see exactly where they are. City Power chose to emphasize the beneficial aspects of this. “We didn’t put it like they would be tracked”, explains Mr Litsili. “The way we put it was that in case of emergency we would be able to locate them if there was a problem. That’s how we put it across.” ‘It was definitely a good decision’ As the network grows with the additional radio sites now to be completed, TETRA training will soon be needed for the remaining electricians who work in districts which are not yet served. “Once we’ve expanded the system we should be able to cover those areas, and all people can come on to the system”, Mr Litsili adds.
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