HM Revenue and
Customsis to spend an estimated £60m over 15
years withAirwave
, the encrypted trunked radio system for Britain's police and
emergency services, to provide secure radio communications to its
investigators.
HMRC investigators will use it for voice communications, but may
add data communications later. They will also be able to link to
other agencies on the system such as local police, fire and
ambulance services. The deal includes in-building coverage, a more
expensive option than the usual service provided to emergency
services.
An HMRC spokesman said the department needed encryption because
of the sensitive content of the information being passed. "HMRC is
responsible not only for the collection and administration of
direct and indirect taxes, but also enforcement, frontier detection
of controlled, restricted or prohibited items, as well as criminal
investigation into organised crime, drug smuggling and
counterfeiting to name but a few," he said.
"We will access the network whenever we need to. We are in the
process of selecting new radios and creating operational talk
groups," he said. Airwave will supply HMRC with a central control
room and 4,000 connections that cover 99% of Britain.
HMRC had considered expanding its existing analogue system. "But
that was too costly compared with sharing the Airwave network," the
HMRC spokesman said.
An Airwave spokesman said the deal made HMRC its fourth-largest
customer.