TETRA  |   Messaging  |  2015-11-18

Airbus Defence and Space’s P8GR Tetra pager performed certification and functionality testing

Source: The Critical Communications Review | Gert Jan Wolf editor

First pager of its kind to fulfil the BOS digital radio network’s interoperability requirements.

Airbus Defence and Space together with the Ministry of the Interior and Sports in the German state of Hesse has completed exhaustive field tests of the Tetra Pager P8GR with a great number of end users over the past few months.

A total of 1,000 devices and their accessories were tested in real life operational situations. In conjunction with tests based on the certification platform of the German Federal Agency for Public Safety Digital Radio (BDBOS), these field tests demonstrated that the device fully satisfies the functionality, interoperability and safety requirements set by Germany’s BOS digital radio network.

Airbus Defence and Space’s P8GR Tetra pager is aimed primarily at volunteer fire brigades, relief organisations and also operators of critical infrastructure systems. In contrast to standard analogue paging devices, the P8GR enables secure two-way communication between the control centre and the operational units. It supports all essential Tetra functions for alerting groups, subgroups and individuals, which in turn allows real-time scheduling and dispatching of emergency services.

From the end of 2015, once BOS-IOP certification and final approval have been awarded, the P8GR will be rolled out in Hesse. Around 50,000 professional and volunteer firefighters and other rescue and emergency service personnel are to be equipped with the pager over the next three years.