Introduction to the Norwegian Public Safety Radio Project
The Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police started in 1995 a formal co-operation with the Ministries of Local Government and Regional Development, and of Health and Social Affairs, on the feasibility study "A common radio network for the public safety services".
By Arild Vollan
A conclusion from this study was that the radio systems of the fire brigades, the police and the health sector (the Public Safety Agencies) no longer met the requirements for functional and reliable communi¬cations. Cooperation between the public safety agencies on analysing the possibility of a future shared radio system was recommended.
In order to further investigate the feasibility of a national radio system for the Public Safety Agencies, a project was established in 1998 with the objective of taking the project forward and establishing the basis for the subsequent procurement of such a national radio system.
As part of this work, a pilot project utilising TETRA technology was implemented in the Trondheim area. The pilot project was awarded through an open tender procedure according to the EEA public procurement regulations. The objectives of the pilot were primarily to address the organisational and operational issues related to involvement of three separate public safety organisations and three ministries using a common infrastructure. Secondly, the pilot was to ensure that if and when a nation-wide system became a reality, it could effectively meet the requirements of the Public Safety Agencies. The pilot project ended in 2003. An English version of the Final Report is available here (PDF, 317KB).
During spring 2002, the project entered into a project definition and specification phase, and on 28th June 2004 the project finished an external quality assurance (QA) process for public projects.
The government decided on the 5th November 2004 to forward a proposal for Stortinget (the Norwegian Parliament) to procure a new digital radio communication system for the Public Safety Agencies and other organisations with civil preparedness responsibilities. An English version of the proposal is available here (PDF, 596KB). The parliament decided 2nd December 2004 to follow the proposal from the government, ref. Budget recommendations S.No.4 (2004-2005) /Section 456.
This procurement project is a joint cooperation between the Ministry of Justice and Police and The Ministry of Health and Care Services. The ministries' subordinate agencies, The National Police Directorate, The Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning and The Directorate for Health and Social affairs take an active part in the project and represent the core users within the emergency agencies.
The following time schedule is planned for the project:
- First stage
Market approach and negotiations 2005
Eastern part of Norway - Oslo and surroundings 2006
Evaluation. New Parliamentary Decision. 2007 - Second stage
The rest of the country to be completed 2009/10
The Request for Proposal (RFP) for the new public safety radio system was sent to the market on May 3rd 2005, and dead-line for submitting tenders was October 17th 2005. An overview of the user requirements to the system can be found here (PDF, 1MB), and the coverage requirements are outlined here (Powerpoint - PPS, 684KB).
Published 13.10.2005 Last update 15.09.2006
