Q. What is Firelink?
A. It’s the task force assigned by the Department for Communities and Local Government to procure a single, wide area radio communications system for the Fire and Rescue Services of England, Scotland and Wales (also known as the solution for updating systems not meeting today’s requirements of local, regional and national resilience).
Q. Are the radio communications systems currently used for fire ground communications affected in any way?
A. No. Existing fire ground communications will not be affected by the introduction of the Airwave service.
Q. Are any Fire and Rescue Services using the Airwave service right now?
A. Yes. The Lancashire and Shropshire Fire & Rescue Services have both been using the Airwave service for more than 2 years.
Q. Who is providing the Airwave service and when will it be fully operational?
A. Airwave will provide the new service. It’s known as the Airwave service. An enhanced Airwave service should be available to Fire and Rescue Services throughout England, Scotland and Wales by the end of 2009.
Q. What do you mean when you say that Fire and Rescue Services will benefit from an enhanced Airwave service?
A. We are tailoring the Airwave service to meet the operational requirements of Fire and Rescue Services. Specifically with regard to resilience, we are building a microwave radio based fallback network to bypass leased lines at the 1,100 base stations that provide critical operational coverage for our Fire and Rescue Service customers. This network will guarantee national vehicle coverage in the event of one or more critical base stations malfunctioning. We are also installing backup generators at these 1,000 plus locations, which will keep them running in the event of a prolonged power outage.
Q. Exactly what is the Airwave service?
A. The Airwave service is a proven national digital radio communications network reserved solely for the emergency services and other organisations with a recognised public safety remit, such as the emergency planning departments of local authorities, the armed forces and the nuclear power generation industry.
Q. How and why did the Airwave service come into being?
A. As far back as 1995, the Government concluded that the communications systems being used by the emergency services were out of date. It was agreed that a robust national digital communications system was required, one that could be used by all the emergency services and the wider public safety community. After a long and detailed tendering process, Airwave was selected to build and operate the new network, known as the Airwave service.
Q. What is the projected lifespan of the Airwave service?
A. At least 10 years from completion of rollout to the Fire and Rescue Services from the end of 2009.
Q. Why is the Airwave service being implemented regionally rather than nationally, when it’s a national service anyway?
A. Because the Firelink project team and Airwave agreed that a regional approach would minimise potential exposure to risk and disruption to existing communications.
Q. What are Airwave’s responsibilities?
A. We will be providing a comprehensive and bespoke end-to-end solution for Fire and Rescue Services, including 24x7 support. We will be installing Airwave service equipment in control rooms; providing direct ground and radio links from control rooms into the Airwave network; installing (and maintaining) radios and mobile data terminals in vehicles; and providing a growing range of data applications over the Airwave network.
Q. What are the major operational benefits of the Airwave service?
A. The Airwave service is inherently resilient. It was designed to withstand even the most aggressive attack or serious failure. Coverage is provided to 99% of Great Britain’s land mass, including all major and minor roads, low-lying and forested rural areas and many remote coastal regions. The Airwave service can provide any level of interoperable communications. It delivers exceptionally clear voice quality, while minimising background noise. And all voice and data communications are secure (i.e. encrypted).
Q. Will capacity ever be an issue with the Airwave service?
A. No. Unlike normal commercial systems that can be swamped by the general public and collapse in the vicinity of a major incident, the Airwave service has been designed to be used by several agencies at the same time. Ample capacity is available for existing and all potential customers and we can provide more if and when it’s required.
Q. Can you prove that the Airwave service can support emergency service responses to planned and unplanned events?
A. In July 2005, we provided a successful service to 12,500 police users in and around the G8 conference at Gleneagles. Then, simultaneously, the London bus and underground bombings occurred. Airwave responded by providing emergency coverage in tunnels, enabling direct communication between rescuers working on the trains and support personnel above ground. During both these events, the Airwave network remained uncongested and all customers continued to receive a business as usual radio service.
Q. Is the Airwave service based on any particular technology and if so why?
A. The Airwave service is based on an open communications standard for digital mobile radio systems called TETRA – short for TErrestrial Trunked RAdio – which was developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI). Airwave believes that TETRA is best suited to serving the communications needs of all our customers. Moreover, as TETRA is an open standard, it actively encourages a competitive environment. Equipment manufacturers and software developers are producing an increasing number of devices and applications that offer our customers more choice and even better value for money.
Q. Will the Airwave service be easy to use?
A. Radios and data terminals have been designed for ease of use in moving vehicles, with push-to-talk voice communications, drop-down menus and intuitive graphical user interfaces. Training will be provided for frontline users, dispatchers and their managers.