TETRA  |  2012-11-07

Airwave excels in Scottish Government Winter Assurance report

Source: The Critical Communications Review | Gert Jan Wolf editor

Paul Sharp, engineering authority to the Fire and Rescue Division of the Scottish Government: “Working closely with Airwave as a service supplier, we will continue to conduct a winter performance review in the first quarter of each year...."

The recent publication of the Scottish Government’s Winter Assurance report reveals that the Airwave Network performed well throughout December 2011 and January 2012 when Scotland experienced severe weather conditions.

According to Paul Sharp, engineering authority to the Fire and Rescue Division of the Scottish Government: “The report acknowledges the effort of Airwave and their subcontractors in collaboration with the Scottish tri-service* group to further improve the resilience of the Airwave Network in response to the challenging winter weather conditions in Scotland.”

During the period under review, Scotland experienced widespread loss of electrical power, which has a minimal operational impact on the Airwave Network, due mainly to the resilient design of the Network.

“Our emergency services rely on a high quality and resilient radio communications system in order to manage and respond to incidents of all types,” says Paul. “Working closely with Airwave as a service supplier, we will continue to conduct a winter performance review in the first quarter of each year so that we can document lessons learned and further the improvement process.”

The report acknowledges that the reviews “can only improve the already high level of Network availability enjoyed by the emergency services in Scotland, enhance the collective resilient response of the wider resilience community and ultimately contribute to the improved security and safety of the citizens of Scotland”.

*The Scottish Contracts & Service Management Group (SCSMG) is a tri-service group under the umbrella governance of the Communications Sector Resilience Group of the Scottish Government

Source: Airwave Solutions