UK ambulance service chooses Airwave Messenger

Airwave Solutions UK has secured a contract with the UK’s South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SWASFT) to provide TETRA Messenger to their community responder groups.

SWASFT has purchased 850 devices and is in the process of rolling them out to responder groups across the South West. A total of 455 devices are currently in use, with the remaining units to be issued before the end of the year.

Designed specifically for the emergency services with links to the customer’s CAD system, TETRA Messenger is a secure, resilient, two-way messaging and alerting solution, which provides messaging using Airwave’s Emergency Services Network (ESN).

“The system is really outstanding for responders and everyone that I have spoken with about it has found the devices easy to use,” said Rob Horton, responder manager at SWASFT.

“The addition of the GPS functionality has bought huge benefits to the utilisation of responders, knowing exactly where people are makes it easier for dispatch and guidance into incidents. The emergency button also provides a safety system for individuals operating alone.”

According to John Lewis, Airwave’s COO: “It is a robust messaging device with the added benefit of receipt acknowledgement. It is a world first and offers significant advantages over analog paging systems.

The device has the functionality to store a number of programmed responses (respond and react) that can be easily integrated into existing control-room systems, giving the operators access to real-time updates.