First GRN for India is a TETRA system

India's first exclusive government radio network is being established under a $236.6 million deal with the country's HCL Infosystems - an ICT systems integration company - and Motorola.

This TETRA network will provide quick and secure communications between government agencies such as the police, fire service, hospitals, public works departments and the city corporation during this year of the Commonwealth Games.

The network will cover the entire metropolitan area of the capital, including transportation networks such as Delhi railway tunnels and New Delhi Airport Terminal-II. The GRN has been designed to minimise the reaction time in the toughest of situations, ensuring minimal call drops and encrypted communication.

The GRN will operate on a secured spectrum and will have 46 base stations. Communication is encrypted and, unlike other public communication infrastructure, this network is specially designed and robustly built to ensure failsafe performance even during emergencies.

The network will help multiple agencies collaborate over a single platform to ensure well coordinated optimum response. In the long run, the GRN will continue to offer options of scalability with easy expansion through additional radio terminals.

Meanwhile, Motorola has deployed a TETRA trunked system in the Chengdu government radio network, said to be the first GRN in Western China.

The 800 MHz covers all urban and suburban regions of Chengdu city.

Motorola’s TETRA digital trunking technology was first selected by Chengdu city in 2004 to establish the government emergency communication system, which covers the downtown area within the third ring road, the Shuangliu airport and the airport expressway. Since going into service, the network has been providing stable and reliable support to daily dispatch, command and control for city management departments, such as public security, fire control, traffic police, emergency rescue and city administration. With the view to strengthening the emergency communications system and enhancing the emergency communications capacity in various natural disasters and emergencies, the Chengdu city government has decided to upgrade and expand the current system and establish the first government radio network in Western China.

The network is expected to enable interoperability and more reliable communications service among public security, fire control and emergency rescue departments and other major city management departments of Chengdu.

It enables different government departments to respond, operate, dispatch and command under a centralised and well-coordinated structure when dealing with emergencies and natural disasters.