It's time to rethink the ESN

A growing number of experts have been watching with horror as the UK Government, led by HM Treasury, Cabinet Office and Home Office, has attempted to deliver a next-generation communications network for public safety and emergency services personnel.

At times it has been painful — at other times, almost comical — to listen to the arguments justifying the radical course that has been taken: to switch off the existing, highly reliable, trusted and dependable Airwave TETRA solution and jump straight to an unproven, pre-standards, commercial solution shared with the public and not reaching the same geographical coverage as its predecessor.

To many of us, therefore, it has been a scandal that it took an NAO report in September 2016 and then a parliamentary inquiry in November 2016 to bring to light the serious shortcomings of the Emergency Services Network (ESN)/Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) process and to open up the possibility of the government at least considering an alternate, more sensible approach.

The conclusions and recommendations from November’s parliamentary inquiry have just been published: ESN will not be ready by its original target date; no budget or detailed contingency plans exist for a protracted transition period; it is based on unproven technology; no serious competition existed for two main contracts; incumbents will have a clear advantage when the ESN is re-competed.

The UK Government made a brave attempt around five years ago to drive forward a radical new vision that would place the most advanced, powerful mobile broadband technology in the hands of emergency services for the next decade and beyond. It is clear that this vision is no longer viable. So what should be done?

Processes need to be updated to make it harder for procurement teams to hide behind the blanket use/abuse of NDAs, hidden or false assumptions/biases, abuses of power and so on, and force them to engage more openly with those directly affected by their decisions. The current secrecy surrounding ESN is ridiculous, totally unnecessary and damaging to the whole process.

The mission-critical voice component must be separated from the mobile high-speed data/video component. One day, these two complementary services may be combined in a single solution, but this was never going to happen by the end of 2019.

The existing TETRA solution needs to be maintained, renewed and fully funded through at least 2025. The sooner this is accepted, the better the deal the UK Government will be able to get. This also will allow users to undertake one more complete refresh of TETRA or TETRA+LTE terminals without fear of obsolescence.

Most police forces and many other emergency services agencies already have existing contracts in place for separate mobile broadband service from network operators, which could also be renewed for a similar period.

Over the coming years, emergency services would be able to continue to test out the new fully standardised, mission-critical functions as they become available, gradually building up capabilities and resilience before declaring them mission critical at some stage during the 2020s. And by the mid-2020s, spectrum should also be available for mission-critical services, following recent rulings at ITU’s WRC-15.

As we look out towards the brave new world of 2030 where everything is connected and everything is smart, the path being followed by ESN is already looking horrendously outdated, obsolete and heading down a proprietary, pre-standards cul-de-sac.

It’s time to accept that significant changes must be made now to ESN. It’s time to futureproof UK emergency services communications and build a best-practice critical communications system of systems, aligned with global markets, fully integrated with existing/future solutions, fully backwards/forwards compatible and fit for purpose for all emergency services.

*Peter Clemons is founder and Managing Director of critical communications consultancy Quixoticity, and a frequent visitor to Australasia, where he regularly speaks at top-level conferences such as Comms Connect.