Old analogue communications system a major safety and security risk
By Arild Vollan
The need for having a well functioning communications system throughout the emergency services is described in great detail in a new English report: An international study of radio interoperability published by BAPCO (see below). This report shows what the implications are when many emergency services have old analogue radio communications systems.
The report documents how 343 firemen died in New York during the terrorist attack on 11 September 2001 because of outdated communications equipment. Authorities in many countries have been criticised for not having shown a serious attitude towards the situation of the emergency service crews. There have been several recommendations made of what should be done.
- The Norwegian emergency radio network project has to a large extent heeded these recommendations. The report shows yet again that the development of an emergency network with nationwide coverage is not merely a technical operation. It is also altogether essential that all activities of the emergency services be coordinated, says Mr. John Wittams of Mason Communications.
He has close to 20 years’ experience of planning emergency communications system in a number of countries, and he adds that, ironically enough, it is more than 15 years since it started to become clear that it would be necessary to replace the individual analogue radio communications systems which have been used by emergency services the world over since the 1960s.
- The development of the Norwegian emergency communication network has been planned right from its beginning in close cooperation with the emergency services. It is going to be an integrated network with good support of interoperability between the radio terminals and the various control centres, based on well-proven technology. It has moreover, been planned so that it will be possible to communicate easily out from the closed emergency network to the networks of fixed and mobile telephones, to the emergency communications systems in other countries, to GSM-R (the railway’s safety and security network), the costal radio and other relevant networks, says John Wittams, who is currently in Norway in order to assist the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and the Police in the negotiations now being held with the tendering parties.
He adds that the challenge in the time to come will be to provide good training for the emergency services, and he points out that for each of the services, a new digital radio network and associated control centres will make it possible to obtain better utilisation of the resources available today.
- Co-operation and operational coordination among all the emergency services is of the highest importance in order to take advantage of all the options available from a new digital network. That has been shown by experience from a number of countries and is one of the core lessons to be learnt from the new English report, he states.
Nils Petter Bryde, senior engineer with DSB, the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning, and project lead for aspects relating to fire in the Norwegian emergency communications network project, states: 
- The need for a joint emergency communications system in Norway has been made very visible on a number of occasions in connection with major incidents, and there have been failures in all the drills carried out in recent years. The actual planning and development of the joint specification of requirements for the Norwegian “blue light services” are of historic dimensions and breaks new ground in Europe.
- The intention behind the establishment of a new digital network for the emergency and rescue agencies is precisely to ensure good interoperability among the services, so that assistance may be given more speedily and with greater efficiency to an affected party. This need for concerted action is made visible in an excellent manner in this new English report. The Public Safety Network is going to represent the foundation for the Norwegian emergency and rescue services, according to Nils Petter Bryde.
He is convinced that from a technical point of view the Norwegian Public Safety Network is going to function well from day one. The challenge for the agencies will be to utilize the technology to enable them to work smarter and more efficient.
- In the fire sector we have high expectation and are keen to test the new emergency callout system to the radio terminals, which provide the option to respond to the incident controller instead of using existing pagers as today. An efficiency gain for the fire services is the opinion voiced by Nils Petter Bryde.
The report can be downloaded here: An international study of radio interoperability. (PDF 1MB). The report is published by the British Association of Public Safety Communications (BAPCO). Officers with the support of, among others, the Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service, which is where Steve Worrall, the author of the report, is working.
There is also a discussion of the report in the March issue of the BAPCO Journal, the journal of the British Association of Public Safety Communications Officers. You will find that article here.
Her is also another report of interest: The Role of Mobiles in Disasters and Emergencies, from the GSM Association.
Download here. (PDF, 287KB)
