A Mikromakro Institute Report TETRA for Poland 8 July 2011 ORGANISATIONAL & BUS INESS MODELS ISBN 978-83-62824-01-4 TETRA for Poland Page 1 TETRA for Poland ORGANISATIONAL & BUSINESS MODELS The deployment and implementation of a single nationwide communications system for public protection and disaster relief services is a complex challenge for any country. Synergies in the technical organisation of communications systems must be created for a number of different services, governed by different regulations and financed from different sources, which requires adaptation to their specific needs. One cannot discard the experience gained from their earlier operations, but on the other hand, some old ways, like the physical ownership and control of infrastructure need to be changed, because it is now better to share infrastructure with others. Securing stable financing for a major project can be quite a challenge, as it will compete with other important public policy objectives financed from the national budget. Even when governed by uncompromising security or national defence requirements, public telecommunications projects are increasingly often planned as long-term cooperation with private partners. The telecom sector has been commercialised over the last decade or so, and learned the ways of the market economy. Even if not designed to compete with market players, state-operated projects must take account of the market environment or else they will be unable to cope with their operating costs or secure finance for development. When taking on new challenges in the area of telecommunications, the public sector may take advantage of the knowledge of the private sector in the fields of technology, infrastructure roll-out, management of telecommunications operators' costs or application of sophisticated financial instruments. With a selected partner, it may co-decide on operating responsibilities, financing models and risk management. This report by the Mikromakro Institute Foundation does not purport to identify the optimal model for working with a private partner, technology vendor, integrator, operator or investor in Poland. To a certain extent, these are political choices. The State decides how it wishes to control ventures, which are critical for the security of the population, protection of property, infrastructure or the economy. It is also up to the government to decide, if it wishes to promote the deployment of an international technical platform for the cooperation of public protection and relief services in neighbouring countries. Such choices need to be made following a thorough review of the considerations. In our report we wish to point to a range of possible solutions derived from other countries' experiences. In drawing up this report we wished to avoid discussion on technical issues, e.g. comparisons of the technical or functional specifications, preferring to leave that to experts in radio trunking systems. Technical terms are used in the report mostly to illustrate prevailing market trends. What we want to do in this report, is to dispel doubts about the rationality of selecting TETRA for nationwide public protection and disaster relief networks in many countries, including all European countries, except Poland, at least to date. The greatest benefit associated with the TETRA digital system, developed specifically for public protection and disaster relief services, is the maturity of this open standard and dozens of successful implementations. The standard will continue its evolution, thus meeting the expectations with regard to the integration of high-speed data transmission, also in the new generations of radiocommunications systems, e.g. LTE. This market is restricted to professional applications, which are a niche, as if it were, comparing to commercial mobile telephony. Nonetheless, the effects of competition are clearly visible in TETRA systems, including the drive at the interoperability of different vendors' equipment, testing of cross- border network connectivity, development of the applications' market or specialised industrial applications. Dozens of working fora, seminars and conferences provide ample opportunity to share experiences on the roll-out and operation of TETRA systems, development of interfaces, new services and applications. No other competing radio trunking system has the same kind of evolutionary momentum collectively driven by technology vendors, operators and users of government networks. It is precisely TETRA for Poland such conditions, which have led to the development of applications and specialised technical solutions, which no single user could afford to develop alone. We address this report to: Policy-makers and decision-makers involved in crisis management, national security, public law & order and disaster relief services; Policy-makers dealing with communications systems and spectrum management; Those in charge of the development and operation of communications services for government services, emergency services, public security services of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, crisis management services; Users of state-operated radio trunking systems. Page 2 Table of contents 1. RADIO TRUNKING SYSTEMS IN POLAND ............................................................... 1 Current TETRA status in Poland .............................................................................................................. 2 2. ORGANISATION AND ECONOMICS OF TETRA NETWORKS ................................... 4 Scope and scale of the system .............................................................................................................. 4 Risk of nonfeasance and makeshift solutions ....................................................................................... 6 Role of project leadership ...................................................................................................................... 7 Network planning ..................................................................................................................................... 8 Contract with infrastructure operator ................................................................................................... 9 3. SELECTED EXAMPLES OF IMPLEMENTED TETRA NETWORKS GOVERNMENT PROJECTS 11 Hungary ................................................................................................................................................... 11 Finland ..................................................................................................................................................... 14 Estonia ...................................................................................................................................................... 16 Denmark .................................................................................................................................................. 18 4. TETRA AS A PANEUROPEAN EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM ............ 21 Frequency harmonisation in Europe ................................................................................................... 22 Standardisation...................................................................................................................................... 23 European forum of government TETRA network users and administrators ................................. 26 Cross-border cooperation ................................................................................................................... 27 Sector representation – the TETRA Association ................................................................................ 27 5. DIGITAL RADIO TRUNKING SYSTEMS ALTERNATIVE TO TETRA TECHNOLOGY .. 29 DMR .......................................................................................................................................................... 29 CDMA2000 - GoTa .............................................................................................................................. 30 6. INTEROPERABILITY ISSUES .................................................................................... 37 Interoperability Certificate .................................................................................................................. 37 ISI inter systems interface ..................................................................................................................... 37 7. TETRA DEVELOPMENT ........................................................................................... 40 8. SOURCES ............................................................................................................... 42 TETRA for Poland TETRA for Poland ORGANISATIONAL & BUS INESS MODELS RADIO TRUNKING SYSTEMS IN POLAND Currently, Poland has more than ten thousand diverse operational trunked radio networks rolled out over the years. They are used in organisations, which need permanent communications, but also require mobility. Such communications allow real-time coordination within an organisation and simultaneous communications with all users. Mobile radio users can remain in touch at all times, but they can also listen too what is happening with the rest. This is the way that many organisations use their means of communications and it corresponds to users' habits. Despite the rapid growth of mobile telecommunications services and applications, the technical and service aspects of the successive generations of commercial GSM, UMTS