Friday fragments - critical comms snippets for 15 May 2015

A round-up of the week’s critical communications and public safety radio news for Friday, 15 May 2015.

Rail radio network completed. Brookfield Rail, the manager and operator of Western Australia’s 5500-kilometre open-access, multiuser freight rail network, has installed a multimillion-dollar two-way radio communications network, improving safety, efficiency and operability of communications along the railway line from Kalgoorlie to Esperance. Covering around 385 kilometres of track, this is one of the largest communications projects of its kind for Brookfield Rail since before privatisation of the freight rail network in 2000.

Military comms set to explode. A new research paper says that despite pressures on overall defence expenditure, a universal trend towards network-centric warfare combined with an unstable geopolitical landscape is continuing to drive significant investments in military communications. The market is expected to account for over US$40 bn in revenue by the end of 2020, with investments ranging from the adoption of multiband and multimode tactical radio systems, to the integration of ad hoc networking platforms in unmanned vehicles.

Backlash against FCC closures. The FCC’s plan to close many of its regional offices has been met with concern across the US communications sector. Many individuals and organisations have put pen to paper to protest the closures, including the Society of Broadcast Engineers.

Los Angeles mandates quake-proof towers. LA has become the first city in the US to require new mobile phone towers to be built to quake-proof standards. The last major quake in California, in 1994, came before the widespread use of mobile phones and other mobile devices, and also before the internet took off.

Dual certification. BATS Wireless has released a stabilised microwave system that it says is the first and only ATEX / IECEx Zone 1 dual certified system in the world. The company said the platform is built to handle hazardous work zones while supplying critical broadband connections to the energy sector