Shropshire fire service goes with Tetra

Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service has signed a £1.3m contract with Airwave to lease its Tetra-based mobile handsets.

The five-year deal means the service will use the same radio communication technology as its police counterparts in West Mercia Constabulary.

This will allow the fire service and police to communicate and co-ordinate their actions during incidents at which they both attend.

The decision to lease the handsets comes ahead of a resolution by HM Inspectorate of Fire Services to have a national fire service communications infrastructure by 2007, based on either Tetra or its rival Tetrapol.

Steve Worrell, programme manager at Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service, explained that the service had an urgent need to replace its analogue radio system before the national service is ready.

"The Inspectorate doesn't expect to have the solution in place before 2007," he said.

"Our existing radio system in Shropshire is at a stage where it is becoming increasingly difficult to use due to a number of black spots where we can't get coverage.

"So we decided to place a contract as an interim solution for a period of five years, [which] will take us up to the point where the Inspectorate can furnish us with the national solution."

Worrell added that the fire service will then adopt whatever system the Inspectorate agrees on. If it is based on Tetrapol the fire service will return the handsets to Airwave, otherwise it will be "business as normal".

Andy Hudson, general manager of BT's Justice and Police unit, described the decision by Shropshire to use Airwave as a "significant step forward in greater interoperability between the emergency services".

"We hope that other public safety organisations will follow suit so that the public can benefit from the sharing of the same service and technology," he added.