Motorola to upgrade emergency services network

Motorola Solutions has signed an agreement with the Victorian Government’s Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA), worth about $130 million to upgrade and extend the management of Victoria’s Metropolitan Mobile Radio (MMR) network for another four years from July 2012, with an option to extend for a further two years from July 2016.

The MMR network is said to be one of the first emergency communications networks to be procured under a build, own and operate public-private services model in Australia. It was first initiated in 2004 and provides mission-critical, digitally encrypted radio voice communications for ESTA, the Victoria Police, Ambulance Victoria and the Metropolitan Fire Brigade across the greater Melbourne metropolitan region.

The agreement will see the company enhance the network with software and radio equipment upgrades. The upgrades will allow the agencies to continue to communicate seamlessly with one another, voice log emergency reports and enhance emergency response, supported by an expansion of service management on the ground.

The agreement also further extends and enhances existing service performance levels, including an expansion of Motorola Solutions’ managed services team, providing service levels to Ballarat’s State Emergency Communications Centre equivalent to those currently experienced in Melbourne.