Motorola is supplying 4,600 extra-secure Tetra radio terminals
to Northumbria Police to be used on the
national Airwave network.
The contract includes the delivery of terminals and support
services to manage the force's migration to the MTP850 Tetra
device, which has been accredited by the UK government's
Communications Electronics Specialist Group (CESG).
The MTP850 meets the security requirements of "Baseline
Approval", a key requirement for operations on the UK Airwave
network. The technology upgrade provided by Motorola has enabled
Northumbria to become the first police force to complete a
force-wide roll out of CESG-Baseline-approved handheld
terminals.
The UK Airwave Tetra network provides mission critical
communications for emergency responders and is used to convey
sensitive information over voice and data services.
To ensure the integrity of the overall system, all Airwave users
will have to migrate to CESG-Baseline-approved terminals, either
through software upgrades or by migrating to new radios.
Tetra terminals operating on the Airwave network must be CESG
compliant by September 2009, and all new radios delivered from 1
September 2008 must already be CESG-Baseline-approved.
One of the new security features is the ability to remotely
"lock" lost police terminals.