Friday fragments - comms news from around the web for 25 July 2014

A round-up of the week's critical communications and public safety radio news for Friday, 25 July 2014.

Not too late to book for ARCIA's Brisbane event. The third annual ARCIA Brisbane seminar day and dinner is coming up on 31 July. There'll be feature presentations, great speakers, plus information sessions, TETRA and P24 Solution Centre demonstrations, and plenty of time for networking, especially during the dinner in the evening. Comms Connect is a supporter of this event.

Comms Connect Melbourne. Comms Connect Melbourne is being held slightly earlier this year, from 30 September to 2 October, but at the usual venue (the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre). It just keeps getting bigger and better, so make sure you're fully booked in either as an exhibitor or attendee - there are only 10 weeks to go!

UK selling military comms gear to Russia. A UK parliamentary report says the country is still exporting communications and other military gear to Russia, despite Prime Minister David Cameron criticising France for doing the same.

Voters to decide on US$46m radio system. A ballot in November will decide whether US$46m will be raised to provide a new emergency radio system for use by member agencies of the Marin Emergency Radio Authority. If the ballot is successful, each home owner in the county will pay US$29 per year for the next 20 years.

FEMA and hams join forces. The US Federal Emergency Management Agency has signed a memo of understanding with the American Radio Relay League to increase cooperation between the two bodies. “This agreement will allow FEMA and ARRL to work together to provide resources, services and personnel, as available, in order to strengthen capacity in areas of emergency communications, mass care and emergency assistance, disaster preparedness, response and recovery, while also raising public awareness about the use of amateur radio as a public safety resource."

IoT to save lives. A study by French and German researchers (The Role of the Internet of Things in Network Resilience) suggests that the Internet of Things, which could reach 30 billion devices by 2020, could have a major role to play in keeping communications open during disasters and emergencies - “... even a low throughput, text-based emergency service would help improving the coordination, speed and efficiency of disaster response, and that the availability of such a service may save lives as a direct consequence."

Who's on first? A stoush has broken out over which company has the rights to deliver a new radio system to the Kenyan Police. Safaricom's US$141m tender has recently been approved, but Tetra Radio says it legitimately won the same contract back in 2001. The dispute is heading to the courts.

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