Why are the Norwegian emergency services in need of new radio communication systems?

Establishing a new Public Safety Radio Network with nation-wide coverage is highly important for the country's critical infrastructure.  The Public Safety Network will be one of the cornerstones of the Norwegian preparedness.
By Arild Vollan

The crews of the fire, police, health and other emergency services currently communicate by means of various radio communication systems based on obsolete analogue technology, which is most unsatisfactory, as these systems do not provide what is currently required in terms of safety, security and operational readiness.  Parts of the communications systems in use in 2006 are more than 30 years old, and severely lacking in meeting the needs of today's emergency services. 

Norway's new emergency radio communications network will provide much improvement in the exchange and co-ordination of information amongst emergency personnel working in the field, their communication centres, the heads of operations, and all other involved parties.  The day-to-day work will be much easier, safer and more secure for the crews of the emergency services on operational duties. 

The changeover to a new digital radio network with nationwide coverage is a major but very necessary undertaking, which Norway will be implementing in order to provide improved safety and security for all the nation's inhabitants, irrespective of where they live in the country.

The first report on the need for a new emergency communications networks in Norway was compiled in 1988.   The preparatory study for developing an emergency network with nationwide coverage started in 1995.  The Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget) passed a resolution for this development on 3 December 2004. You may read more her: Introduction to the Norwegian Public Safety Radio Project

New digital radio networks have already been established, or decisions made to establish such networks, in 21 European countries, as of March 2006.

Each agency has its own dedicated radio networks

The introduction of this radio network will provide the emergency services with a single integrated communications network as opposed to the current situation where each agency has its own dedicated radio network. The new emergency network will be a single joint network with nationwide coverage, whilst at the same time providing by means of digital radio technology, for each of the agencies to perceive it as their own network. 

A number of new functions within the new digital radio network will make the work easier for each individual user. Also the digital network will make far better use of scarce frequency resources by permitting a far greater number of users within the limited radio bandwidth. It is also encrypted to prevent eavesdropping.   The result will be a greatly enhanced service to the general public.

The emergency network in the communications chain

In Norway the network for mobile telephones (the GSM networks of Telenor and NetCom) is the general public's communications system. 

The new emergency network is the internal communications system for the public safety services , and it is designed to function completely independently of all other mobile networks. This means that the emergency services can always get through regardless of how busy the other networks are.  In addition, the new emergency network has structured "fall-back" functions that permit continued operation even in the event of system equipment failures.  As such, the new emergency network is not dependent on large, central components in order to maintain functional integrity. 
As a last resort, direct communication radio terminal to radio terminal may be used in the event that the radio infrastructure is unavailable.

 A heavy economic investmentre and a technical challenge

The roll out of a new emergency network is a major technical challenge and a heavy economic investment for the Norwegian nation.  The total development and implementation has been estimated to cost approximately 3.6 billion kroner (2004-kroner).

It is planned to undertake the replacement of all equipment in the communications centres for the fire services (24 dedicated call centres), the police (27 operation call centres) and health (21 AMK call centres, 89 accident and emergency units and 165 duty doctor call centres).  This means an update of all 326 call centres in this country.

In addition around 36,000 hand-held and vehicle-mounted radio terminals will be procured, and technical equipment for the backbone transmission system will be installed at a number of locations.  It is planned that rollout of the network shall be complete in 2009/10.

Neutral in terms of technology

The drafting of the requirements specification for the new emergency network in Norway was neutral in terms of technology, meaning that there was no request for a specific technology to be used.  This was done in order to ensure that the most suitable technologies would be tendered.

The specification of requirements for the emergency network in Norway had about 4,000 specified requirements, including the requirements relating to equipment at the communication control centres).

The requirements were linked to the following main areas:

 Network services, including coverage, safety and security, operations and maintenance
 Radio terminals, including types, functionality and accessories
 Communication control centres
 Supplementary services and application interfaces
 Documentation, training etc.

The process has taken us to a point where we are left with two tenderers, both offering TETRA technology.  Please see the press release from the Ministry of Justice (22 February 2006).

The state assumes responsibility for infrastructures

In developing the new emergency network the Norwegian state assumes responsibility for infrastructures of major importance to society and communities in general.  Stortinget has passed a resolution declaring that the emergency network will be looked upon as one of the foundation pillars in the future overall defence of the nation. You may read more in the recommendations from the "Committee to secure the country’s critical infrastructure."

The primary users of the emergency network are the three emergency services, fire, police and health.  In addition, there are guidelines in the resolution passed by Stortinget stating that it should also be possible for the emergency network to be opened-up for use by other user groups with public safety responsibilities.  Examples of relevant user groups would be the military defence, the customs service, the prison authorities, the civil defence, the electricity utilities and voluntary help and rescue organisations.

“Should not be a development project”

In the decision to develop the emergency network in Norway, it was pointed out by The Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget) that the new emergency communications system for this country should not be a development project, but should comprise proven and stable technologies, since the emergency network is required to meet critical public safety and social needs. 

The most relevant commercial mobile telephone systems today are GSM, UMTS, and CDMA, while at the same time there are radio system technologies which have been developed specifically for emergency and public safety communication, such as TETRA, Tetrapol and GSM-R. In addition, there are other radio system technologies, some with hybrid solutions, but have so far, not been tested to any significant extent.

The emergency services have a requirement for a number of specific functions, for example, instant group communication, rapid establishment of connections, mechanisms for giving priority, direct communication between units and built-in safety and security mechanisms to prevent eavesdropping.  This means that the solution requirements for an emergency network are very different from those for ordinary, commercial mobile telephony systems.  The systems used by the emergency services must be capable of continuous working in extreme situations where the national infrastructures are under duress.

In connection with the development of a new emergency communications network in Norway with nationwide coverage, a pilot project was carried out in the Trondheim region during 2000/03.  The objective was to obtain quality assurance of organisational, technical and economic evaluations concerning the development of such an emergency network.

Various technological options are described in greater detail in several reports, see central documents at this website, and see for example, The Use of Commercial Cellular Mobile Networks as a Solution for Public Safety Users in Norway. (PDF, 74KB) or the report (in Swedish) from the Swedish Government Cabinet Office in Stockholm: Funktionell och finansiell analys av alternativa tekniker för gementsamt radiokommunikationsnät för skydd och säkerhet. (PDF, 1MB).

Brochure (pdf)

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