Aragon will improve the coordination of its emergency services

The government of northern Spanish region Aragon has awarded the Teltronic-Telefónica temporary consortium the tender to deploy a digital mobile communications network with regional coverage that will provide secure communications for its security and emergency services.

Until now, the different public safety and emergency agencies in Aragon used different analog radio communication networks, or even mobile telephone systems which, in addition to offering basic features and not guaranteeing the confidentiality of communications, made it difficult to coordinate the work in the response to events, such as a forest fire, for example. The network will be configured as a modern and unified communications system that solves current shortcomings, allowing the introduction of more advanced functionalities, guaranteeing the service at all times and allowing immediate and efficient interoperability between the different agencies.

The TETRA network will also improve audio quality, offer high levels of encryption to guarantee the integrity and security of communications and allow the transmission of data for imaging, geolocation and, in general, the implementation of value-added services.

Initially, the network will serve the users of the Directorate General of Natural Environment and Forest Management, Security and Civil Protection, Emergency Health Care and Emergencies, Road Conservation and Operation Service, although the intention is that in the future this system will bring together the radio communications of other security and emergency services of Aragon, including other public administrations and local entities.

The Government of Aragon will invest €10.6 million over a period of five years, of which the first two years will be spent on the deployment of the network and the following three years, already in operation, will be spent on the operation and maintenance of the system, the transport network and its user terminals. Teltronic’s headquarters are located in the region; it has a complex geography with large mountains and extensive natural areas. Despite its large size, it has a population of around 1.3 million, making it largely uninhabited, with the capital Zaragoza holding over half the population.

The TETRA network will reach 84% of the Aragonese territory with mobile coverage, improving the 77% established in the tender. To this end, Teltronic will deploy a total of 113 units of its MCBS, a base station with a multi-carrier capacity, which will allow the emergency services to increase the traffic capacity of the network in critical or catastrophic situations when the intervention of a multitude of simultaneously operating users is required; and three transportable base stations. The system also includes two fully redundant control nodes.

Telefónica will deploy a corporate data transport network with MPLS technology throughout the entire Aragon region that will serve to transport this service. In order to speed up implementation and avoid a high impact on rural terrain of high ecological value, the operator will use high-availability and high-capacity radio links with redundancy.

As part of this project, Teltronic will also install its control centre solution, CeCoCo, in the three control rooms of the Directorate General for the Natural Environment and Forest Management and in the mobile command post (MCP). Telefónica will make the necessary modifications to the two current MCPs to install the equipment to extend coverage or improve the network’s traffic capacity wherever it is needed, either through commercial 4G or satellite technology; also incorporating a new 4x4 vehicle, also with these capabilities, but more agile than the existing ones to reach the most remote and inaccessible points.

The contract also includes the supply of more than 2300 desktop, mobile and portable terminals and, additionally, with the aim of evaluating the benefits that 4G technologies can offer the emergency services, the contract also includes broadband equipment developed by Teltronic, with which specific value-added applications for emergency management can be tested.

Finally, in order to improve the existing infrastructure and protect it against storms or accidental power cuts, Telefónica will provide alternative energy systems that will guarantee the continuity of the system.