North Wales Police could bypass Tetra

North Wales Police is to equip its officers with mobile technology that could make the controversial Tetra communications system less relevant.

As part of its drive to get more officers on patrol, North Wales Police will issue officers with handhelds and tablet PCs.

Over the next three years, the force will roll-out 1,000 PDAs to its officers and front-line support staff, while 200 vehicles will have tablet PCs installed and connected via a GPRS network.

The move forms part of a wider project to free up police time by allowing routine tasks to be completed away from stations, and reducing time spent filling in forms.

The project will be paid for through achieving these efficiencies.

Officers will use the PDAs to confirm the identification of suspects stopped by patrols, or to help victims identify criminals.

Inspector Rob Kirman said that the technology has already helped to catch a disqualified driver.

The PDAs will also be used for functions originally intended for Tetra, such as connecting to the Police National Computer.

The £3bn UK rollout of Tetra handsets from O2 Airwave was intended to deliver a digital network for police forces capable of handling both voice and data.

But the introduction of the PDAs and tablets will mean that officers will only be using Tetra for "simple messaging", according to Mike Hughes, command and control project manager at North Wales Police.

"There is an issue with available bandwidth. Tetra has a relatively small width, but we need a wider one for Jpegs," he said.

Kirman added: "When Tetra comes online and goes beyond [what] our current systems [are capable of], we will use it."

Tetra is being rolled out in the UK as part of the emergency services' communications strategy, but analysts have warned that it is unlikely to surpass existing technologies in the short to medium term.

Investment in Tetra lags behind other types of communication standards because the market is so small.

While future enhancements to chip technology may mean that devices are capable of operating using a variety of protocols, such as GPRS, GSM and Tetra, products are "some way off", said Jessica Figueras, senior analyst at Ovum.

O2 Airwave could not be reached for comment at time of going to press.