If anyone needed convincing of the Asia-Pacific Region’s importance to the growth of TETRA, the global wanderings of the TETRA World Congress – to Hong Kong in 2008 and Singapore in 2010 – give an indication as to how the TETRA Association (now the TCCA) has viewed the region.

Between June 2007 and June 2008 the Asia-Pacific market doubled to become, according to the association, the fastest-growing critical communications market in the world. Transportation alone accounted for 40 per cent of that market. At that time, Phil Kidner, chief executive of the association, said: “The interest in TETRA technology is now coming from all regions of the world, but none more so than Asia, where the enthusiasm and speed of adoption is remarkable.”

Looking now at the situation in the region, he believes that – despite the claims of the DMR community – the only mission-critical radio technologies are P25 and TETRA. “TETRA is here today in over 125 countries”, he emphasizes. “It has more functionality for voice and data than any other technology. You can touch it, feel it, kick it even!”

He adds that he sees much of P25 as still “a promise to the future”. And to claims that you need many more TETRA base stations to cover a particular area than P25, Kidner states, categorically: “This is incorrect. It is true that the laws of physics say that a high-powered VHF signal will go further than a lower-powered UHF signal. But the reality is that topography, operational requirements and capacity mean that any difference is marginal.

“People should look at the whole-life costs and the whole-life benefits and then compare. P25 makes much about its ability to migrate from analogue. Using gateways, TETRA can replicate this.

“In my experience, once users themselves experience any digital radio, they wish to move away from analogue systems
as soon as possible. Today, over two million TETRA radios are currently in use. Approximately 20 per cent are in Asia, and despite the competition from other technologies, we predict that this percentage will increase significantly over the next five years.” 

Gaining ground

Terence Ledger, Sepura’s director for the region, told TETRA Today that whilst he sees the adoption of TETRA growing in Southeast Asia, particularly in the transport, mining and utility sectors, DMR is being considered by some users as an alternative purely because of the cost savings that can be made. Ledger added that China continues to be a growing market for TETRA in public safety and government sectors, despite proprietary Chinese standards competing in that market.

And he went on: “In Australia, where we have now deployed over 9000 terminals, TETRA is booming and is the standard of choice in the oil, gas and mining industries, where users include FMG [picture, right], BHP, LNG and Xstrata.”

TETRA had also been very successful in Australia’s hospitality industry, he said, with users including the Hyatt, Palazzo Versace, Sky City Darwin Casino (all in Darwin), as well as the Gold Coast Convention Centre in Queensland.

Ledger said that 2012 and beyond looks “very promising”, with continued acceptance of TETRA as the digital technology of choice. He said that public safety agencies tend to be predominantly P25 users, while industrial and transport sectors tend to be mixes of P25 and DMR – but that overall in the Australian market there are opportunities for TETRA to enter. He concluded that there is a real chance that government radio networks will start to move from P25 to TETRA, with Queensland being the first state that could make such a decision.

Alternatives

Having customers across the region in both the P25 and TETRA camps, Motorola Solutions commented on the potential for TETRA growth in the region with a large degree of business prudence. “Asia Pacific is a large and heterogeneous market where both TETRA and APCO-P25 technologies co-exist, and the customer may choose either technology based on their unique mission-critical requirements”, the company stated. “Considerations often include spectrum, coverage, scalability, long-term plans and type of application requirements they have, in order to meet their mission-critical needs.”

And it went on: “Being well-established open-standards-based technologies, both TETRA and APCO-P25 technologies offer clear roadmaps for evolution to the next generation of voice and data and are well supported by an ecosystem of equipment manufacturers and application developers in mission-critical communications, and to offer long-term value to its users.”

Leaving no hint as to which side of the fence the company might lean towards first, it wrapped up in diplomatic style, “Motorola Solutions is a global solution provider and in a unique position to offer both TETRA and APCO-P25 to support our customers’ choice. 
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