https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Events
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookies Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • Microwave/RF
    • T&D World
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Events
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookies Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • Microwave/RF
    • T&D World
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

Coverage/Interference


UK public-safety LTE network targeted for completion in 2020, with LMR providing early direct-mode solution

  • Written by Donny Jackson
  • 7th July 2017
First responders in the United Kingdom (UK) are slated to complete the communications transition from the Airwave TETRA system to the LTE-based Emergency Services Network (ESN) in 2020, although LMR technology likely will continue to be used when off-network voice communications are needed, according to a UK official.

What is in this article?

  • UK public-safety LTE network targeted for completion in 2020, with LMR providing early direct-mode solution
  • UK public-safety LTE network targeted for completion in 2020, with LMR providing early direct-mode solution

UK public-safety LTE network targeted for completion in 2020, with LMR providing early direct-mode solution

First responders in the United Kingdom (UK) are slated to complete the communications transition from the Airwave TETRA system to the LTE-based Emergency Services Network (ESN) in 2020, although LMR technology likely will continue to be used when off-network voice communications are needed, according to a UK official.

Gordon Shipley, program director for the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme at the Home Office, said public-safety users are expected to begin migrating to the ESN LTE network during the middle of next year, with the transition slated for completion during the latter half of 2020.

When completed, the ESN will provide the 97% geographic coverage and 99.86% availability metrics that the Airwave system provides today, with the benefits of broadband data and lower operational costs, Shipley said. Unlike FirstNet in the United States, the ESN does not have dedicated public-safety spectrum to leverage, so the system will utilize the commercial wireless network of BT-owned EE—operating on spectrum at 800 MHz, 1.8 GHz and 2.6 GHz—and services from Motorola Solutions.

Since early 2016, Motorola Solutions also owns the Airwave network, which is scheduled to be shut down at the end of 2019—although the TETRA system is expected to be needed into the third quarter of 2020 in a handful of regions, Shipley said.

Completing the transition to the ESN public-safety LTE network is important to the UK government, which pays Motorola Solutions about 400 million pounds annually for use of the Airwave system, Shipley said. The annual cost of the 3,800-site Airwave system is about double the projected cost of the 19,000-site ESN, he said.

“If EE and Motorola can’t deliver the ESN on time, then—of course—we run on Airwave, and we run on Airwave at a very expensive price,” Shipley said during a breakout session at the recent PSCR Broadband Stakeholder Meeting in San Antonio. “So, we’ve had to incentivize Motorola to not only deliver the ESN on time but also incentivize them to shut down Airwave at a time that we require—2020.”

Shipley said initial performance on the ESN test system has been positive.

“We’ve done priority and preemption,” he said. “We’ve proven it works on the reference system, which is built out … We’ve proved the push-to-talk [over LTE] works.”

While push-to-talk services on the network work well, Shipley said he is not as confident about off-network voice communications, also known as direct-mode voice. Although the 3GPP standards body approved the mission-critical push-to-talk (MCPTT) standard leveraging proximity services (pro se) in March 2016, testing of standardized solutions are just beginning. Samsung has a pre-standard version of MCPTT, but the signal range is about half the range of direct-mode voice using a TETRA handheld, he said.

Indeed, engineers worldwide have noted the physics challenges associated with direct-mode LTE, which typically operates at much lower power levels and at higher frequencies—and lesser propagation—than LMR solutions.

There are other challenges, as well, Shipley said.

“There’s a lot of question as to how direct mode of operations—or device-to-device [communications]—is going to work, particularly when it comes to users who go out of coverage, but they don’t realize they’ve gone out of coverage and the rest of the team don’t realize they’ve gone out of coverage,” he said.

“So, how do you go from where you think you’re connected to the macro network [and] re-engineer everything to move to a local, device-to-device arrangement for your team. There are a lot of issues that still need to be worked through for this to be fully successful.”

1 | 2 |
UK public-safety LTE network targeted for completion in 2020, with LMR providing early direct-mode solution
Tags: Motorola Solutions TETRA Coverage/Interference Land Mobile Radio Long Term Evolution (LTE) News Public Safety Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet News

Leave a comment Cancel reply

To leave a comment login with your Urgent Comms account:

Log in with your Urgent Comms account

Or alternatively provide your name, email address below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Public safety needs a better way to triage emergency calls
  • Newscan: FBI received over 100,000 pieces of digital evidence after Capitol attack
  • Intelsat to test 4G connections to iPhones from stratosphere

Commentary


Public safety needs a better way to triage emergency calls

13th January 2021

In challenging year, working with public safety to move FirstNet forward

30th December 2020

Communications solutions must evolve quickly to meet needs of a changing world

31st October 2020
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

RT @IWCEexpo: 📆 Mark Your Calendars: IWCE will be returning to Las Vegas this September and registration is slated to open in April 📆 Wa…

15th January 2021
UrgentComm

RT @IWCEexpo: ⚡FLASH SALE: Don't miss this exclusive offer! Passes to #IBFVirtual are now 50% off with code TWITTER50. Take advantage of th…

6th November 2020
UrgentComm

Get ready for part 2 of "Ensuring Public Safety Emergency Communications" next week! @PCTEL_inc will explore… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

3rd November 2020
UrgentComm

Over the past few months, we’ve seen the world transform, and it's clear that cities will be affected in the long-t… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

27th October 2020
UrgentComm

Florida state & local agencies subscribing to the Statewide Law Enforcement Radio System (SLERS) will be able to co… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

26th October 2020
UrgentComm

Tune in to @slacorp CEO Josh Lober as he explains how the company has fully integrated its #PTT application to work… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

26th October 2020
UrgentComm

.@SierraWireless announced the commercial availability of the AirLink MG90 platform, which they tout as the first m… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

26th October 2020
UrgentComm

Attorneys for #Hytera and #MotorolaSolutions this week submitted final written arguments, apparently clearing a pat… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

22nd October 2020

Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • Microwave/RF
  • T&D World
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2021 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X