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It really is all over Europe. And, overwhelmingly, the choice of the public safety sector today is TETRA. During the reign of TETRA Release 1, competition from Tetrapol was regularly in the news. What is the current situation in 2010 regarding competition from other technologies used by emergency services across Europe and in other TETRA target markets of the world? PK: From a public safety, mission-critical perspective, there are three main technologies which are open to users. One is TETRA, one is Tetrapol, the other is APCO P25 in the US. So there is competition between those three, but TETRA is by far the most successful. Tetrapol has had a small impact globally and P25 is still really in development, so has not been huge competition before now. At the other end of the scale, ETSI publish another standard, DMR, which is intended for people to migrate from analogue to digital on small systems. DMR wants to develop as far as it can and it is looking to have trunked systems, for example. But this is only competition at the lower end of the TETRA market where, with its limited functionality, this may be enough for lower-end users such as taxi firms. In China they are developing their own standards for digital trunking, but this will be some time away. I think DMR, as an ETSI standard, will be very successful, though no major threat to TETRA, which targets the mission-critical/business-critical base. How many networks have been deployed worldwide outside Europe and in how many of these markets is TETRA not a recognized standard? PK: ETSI believes it is a global standards organization and in most countries that’s accepted. So if you wanted to roll out a TETRA network in Sudan, for example, it would be accepted as an international standard. But there are exceptions as in the cases of China and Korea, where they have their own procedures to go through to comply with their own standardization bodies. As for the exact number of networks deployed around the world, I can’t tell you for reasons of confidentiality. But I can say that TETRA is now in over 114 countries. A lot of the networks are in areas of public safety where people do not want the publicity. There are, for example, networks in Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq, but they don’t get publicized. What is the current situation regarding the potential of TETRA being adopted in North America? PK: In order for TETRA to be used in North America it has to comply with North American regulatory requirements. They are slightly different in the US and in Canada. In the US, regulations were originally developed for analogue systems, and TETRA, like other digital systems, does not quite fit into their requirements. But this is by such a very tiny margin that when we met with the regulator in the US they suggested we apply for a waiver and that our application will be passed on that basis. So we applied for the waiver just before Christmas 2009 and are currently awaiting the outcome of that process. In Canada there is no waiver, so there has to be a change in the standard, but we are confident of a similar decision in the same timescale. Which are the main TETRA handset manufacturers and is production keeping up with demand from all sectors involved and meeting their specific handset needs? PK: The biggest manufacturer of handsets in the world is Motorola. The biggest manufacturer of handsets for public safety is Sepura. And there is a whole list of other manufacturers and something like 40 different handsets on the market, from hazardous fire environment handsets to covert radios, motorcycle radios, and more. What are the current spectrum needs, and do these relate to specific vertical sectors? PK: Spectrum is a challenge, especially in Europe where there isn’t any spare available. The TETRA Association is trying very hard to identify where to obtain spectrum for what we need today, for TEDS and for whatever will come after. But our current TETRA customers have to have a future and we’re trying hard to make sure there’s spectrum available for that future. What’s next for TETRA? PK: We continue to improve such things as the tender process for interoperability services, so that every end user can buy the terminals they want and systems knowing they have been tested fully. We will continue to market to the Asia Pacific and South America and will be working with ETSI on standards that will take us to TETRA Release 3. Importantly, we will continue working with existing users to develop ISI in Europe. And lastly, but not least, we have to make sure spectrum is available for the future.
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