The Metropolitan Police has ordered 30,000 radio handsets
from Motorola in a multimillion-pound deal, but most of the
advanced features on the handsets will not immediately be available
to officers on the beat.
In a competitive tender, the Met chose Motorola's MTH800 handset
ahead of Tetra (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) handsets from companies
including Nokia.
The colour handsets will work on the police's national Airwave
Tetra network and will include support for extensive data, imaging,
and location-based services - the main reason the Met chose the
MTH800.
However, none of these features currently work on the Met's
communications system because the force does not have the back-end
architecture to support them.
Chief superintendent Peter Goulding, chairman of the board that
decided to go with Motorola, said the feature-rich handsets were
chosen so the force's network would be "future-proofed".
Goulding said, "This is a multimillion-pound contract that will
deliver substantial savings on what we thought we would pay for
such functionality."
Goulding said the 30,000 handsets would be introduced over a
15-month period, with officers continuing to use the existing
analogue radio service during the changeover.
He admitted that the Met would initially only use the voice service
on the handsets, because it lacked the systems to support the data,
photo and satellite global positioning features on the terminals.
The GPS system, if introduced, will allow a control room to use
maps to precisely locate an officer on the beat.
Goulding said, "Additional contracts will be considered to enable
these features to be introduced, and Motorola will not necessarily
be the company to implement this architecture."
Motorola said police forces in Kent, Northamptonshire, Norfolk and
seven Scottish forces have also placed orders for the MTH800.