Tetra World Congress 2010 held in Singapore

Ask a professional mobile radio user in North America about Tetra and you
would probably hear, "Wassat?". For that matter, ask a user in Delhi Metro and
you might hear, "Woh kya hai?". The Tetra standard is not in use in North
America and so "Wassat" is hardly a surprise. But in most other parts of the
world, Tetra is pretty much the standard and yet the user in Delhi may ask, "Woh
kya hai?". No big deal really as Tetra is a not a front-end tool for the user.
Terrestrial Trunk Radio (Tetra) is a standard for professional mobile radios or
walkie talkies as it is commonly known. It was first published in 1995 and was
originally known as Trans European Trunked Radio until the association began to
see world wide potential. Tetra was designed for primary use by government
agencies, emergency services, transport services and the military. Tetra
standard is for mobile radio communication what GSM is for mobile phone
standards. And interestingly, both Tetra and GSM standards have been published
by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) and endorsed by the
European Radio Communications Committee for use in Europe.

Like the GSM standard, Tetra
is very European, and what is very European
cannot be very American. So, while the Tetra standard has been adopted in close
to hundred countries, it has not made an entry into North America where the APCO
(Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International) standard
rules. APCO has been around since 1935, and they have come out with standards
like APCO 16 and APCO 25 for public safety telecommunications. So the battle
lines are clear. Both Tetra and APCO standards have been primarily created for
public safety and emergency services, and so far both have not let the other
into its territory while the rest of the world has the choice between the two.
Speaking at the Tetra World Congress 2010 in Singapore, Phil Godfrey, chairman
of the Tetra Association mentioned that Tetra does have a specification problem
in North America. "We have applied for a waiver around the specification issue
in the US in December'09 and are hopeful of a positive outcome. There is a
similar situation in Canada but they do not have a waiver route," said Godfrey.
So, it could be a long time yet before Tetra sets foot in North America.

In Asia Pacific, it is quite a different story for Tetra. Like the GSM story,
Tetra has found favor with many Asian countries as they decided to either
install new mobile radio networks or upgrade from the earlier analog networks.
APAC contributes to 25% of Tetra installation worldwide and that is up from 5% a
few years back. "Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region in the world for the
last four to five years. Much of the growth is led by China which has adopted
Tetra in a big way," said Dave Chater-Lea, chairman of ETSI WG4 group. Despite
being the fastest growing, Tetra does not have any office bearers from the
region. As a measure to rectify the situation, the Tetra association anounced
that they have appointed Jolly Wong of the Hong Kong Police as the Tetra
Association Ambassador for Asia Pacific. Furthermore, demonstrating the
association's commitment to the fastest growing region, the Tetra World Congress
was held in Asia for the second time in three years. First in Hong Kong in 2008
and now in Singapore in 2010. Many new products were announed in Singapore by
vendors like EADS, Motorola, Rohde & Schwarz Rohill, Sapura, Selix, Teltronic.

The Motorola Pack

Of the various vendors in the Tetra bandwagon, Motorola is amongst the
leaders with 450 customers and over 1.2 mn terminals in the field. And they made
their presence at the Tetra World Congress with a number of new product
announcements and live demonstrations. Motorola announced what they call the
world's smallest Tetra Enhanced Data Services (TEDS) ready base station called
the MTS1. Based on a new high performance hardware platform, the MTS1 is easily
deployable for indoor and outdoor applications. The new device features IP66
weather resistance with wall and pole mounted installation options. It claims to
offer network operators a cost effective adaptable solution that is simple to
install for rapid and diverse deployment. Typical use of the MTS1 will be for
the police department, fire fighting and other time critical applications.
"Emergency service personnel require quick transfer of data and with the MTS1,
we are well placed to offer enhanced data solutions to such personnel," said
Jens Kristiansen, vice president of Tetra Global Products and Solutions,
Motorola.

The three other new product announcements at the Tetra World Congress were
the MTS4E, the multi band Tetra base station, MTM5400 end user radio device and
a new software platform Dimetra 7.1. The first customer for the MTS4E base
station is the UK government radio network called Airwave. The value proposition
of the MTS4E is that it provides access to multiple frequency bands utilizing
the same control channel and supports TEDS for high speed data. According to
company sources, the new base station provides a 20x increase in data capacity
and support for rich media applications. The end user device MTM5400 is the
first Tetra mobile with voice and TEDS capability. The features of the device
aids essential workflow management and group communication that is essential in
mission critical operations. The radio also includes integrated repeater-gateway
function and a 10W transmission power capability. Another interesting feature of
the MTM5400 is that it can be programmed over the air like how software upgrades
are done on PCs, and that too without any down time while the upgrades are
happening. This reduces the need for the radio devices to be returned to
designated locations for programming upgrades.

On the software level, the Dimetra 7.1 offers a variety of new features like
high speed data, enhanced security and resilience, reduced TCO. By being
integrated with the infrastructure equipment, the IP over Ethernet feature
eliminates the need for external boxes that interoperate with legacy
transmission protocols. The four announcements cover the network, software and
the device levels. Highlighting the performance of Motorola in the enterprise
mobility network area, Phey Teck Moh, corporate vice president of Motorola said
that company has a 70% market share in the mass rapid transport sector in China
and elsewhere.

The New Packs

Tetra started off as a standard for two way voice communications for mobile
radios. After that, came the need for data communication and that paved the way
for TEDS which is part of the enhanced Tetra II standard. The need for video
came next and enabling that on the Tetra platform will be LTE or 4G broadband.
"Video security is the next big thing in public safety. It will turn the jury
into a witness," said Tom Quirke, vice president of Enterprise Mobility
Solutions of Motorola. GPS facility on the two-way radios has been around for
less than five years and it plays a big role in the video security part. A lot
of analytics can be determined from the video grabs. For instance, one can
estimate the number of people in a given area like a metro station or a stadium.
"If the emergency button is pressed on the end user device, then all cameras in
the area will focus in the GPS coordinates of the officer in distress," added
Quirke. In the APAC region, countries like South Korea and Australia are showing
an appetite for video security.

The Tetra World Congress is moving to Budapest in May 2011. But, if North
America continues to spurn the Tetra overtures, it will not be long before the
Congress returns to the fastest growing region. Beijing and Delhi must surely be
on the list. Until then, let the wheels roll and the calls connect.

E Abraham Mathew

vadmail@cybermedia.co.in