Emergency services get £2.5bn digital radio network

The Home Office has signed a £2.5bn deal with Motorola and BT for a digital radio network to be rolled out across all UK police forces and many emergency services.

The Public Safety Radio Communications (PSRC) project has been in the planning stage for five years and will link all 53 police forces in England, Scotland and Wales. It will allow information sharing between police databases across the country, improve communication between forces and allow police to transmit photographs or graphics from the scene of a crime.

John Doughty, vice president and director of distribution at Motorola, said: "Most people don't realise a policeman in one force can't contact police from another force using his radio. This system allows police to communicate across the country. It also enables forces to mount joint operations in a very effective fashion."

Jeff Parris, general manager of BT Quadrant, added: "This is about empowering officers at the front end with information being pushed to them and giving them direct access to a greater range of resources."

Projects are already in place to link up the network with other emergency services. Trials in Lancashire will produce integration with fire and ambulance services and units across the rest of the UK are expected to follow suit within the next five years.

Sheila Davies, RSRCP project manger at Motorola, said: "Initial government funding has come from the Home Office and if other emergency services want to link up to it they will have to divert funding away from existing radio communications budgets. But if they don't use our infrastructure, they would just end up duplicating efforts."

The system's infrastructure is based on the terrestrial trunked radio standard (TETRA) - which could ultimately allow forces to integrate with other European countries using the same standard.

Lancashire will go live by the end of the year, while the service will be rolled out in Greater Manchester and Yorkshire by spring 2001. The entire network will be complete by 2005.