Iceland-based Rögg works with Range Networks to develop search-and-rescue technology

Baldvin Hansson, director of technology for Rögg, echoed this sentiment in a prepared statement.

 “We’ve seen first-hand the risks posed to both rescuers and missing persons in these extreme conditions,” Hansson said. “People get lost in the highlands all the time, and it’s not uncommon that they are carrying their cell phones. Through this technology, the Coast Guard is able to locate lost individuals faster and more efficiently, oftentimes completing the mission in the amount of time it used to take to launch one.”

Iceland-based Rögg works with Range Networks to develop search-and-rescue technology

The initial version of the Rögg solution works only with GSM cell phones, and a UMTS version is expected to be on the market on July 1, Stern said. More important for North American first-responder agencies, an LTE version of the location technology is expected to be ready during the latter portion of the 2015 first quarter, he said.

Stern acknowledged that it may be difficult for a North American public-safety agency to justify purchasing the current version of the solution, because GSM phones are not ubiquitous on the continent as they are in most of Europe. In addition, a new software-defined radio will be used for the UMTS, and the same unit will be leveraged for the LTE solution next year.

While the Rögg solution does not use GPS location technology, the underlying Range Networks OpenBTS software platform is flexible enough to support any kind of location technology—and the open-source nature of the platform means that application developers do not necessarily have to use hardware from Range Networks, Stern said.

“We have certain integrators in the government community who license our source code and put it on their own hardware, and we encourage that,” he said. “You can get a license from us and get support and put on our own hardware.”

On a smaller scale, Range Networks also is seeking radio dealers, Stern said.

“We work with a number of integrators, but we do a lot of work directly with government,” Stern said. “We’re very interested in developing a dealer network. The kind of dealer network that’s ideal for us is someone who is familiar both with cellular communications—base-station installation, at least—and somebody who has familiarity with IP networks, because this is both an IP system and a cellular-radio system.”