Asian Games receive helping hand from German firm

Dubai: When the Asian Games commenced yesterday in Doha, organisers had a new tool to help them traverse a logistical minefield awaiting them.

To make sure the event runs smoothly, and public safety efforts are coordinated by emergency first responders and the police, they will employ a digital radio system capable of connecting 13,000 users that was completed two weeks ago by Germany's R&S Bick.

The technology is called TETRA, or terrestrial trunked radio, a secure, digital two-way radio system that has risen in popularity around the world in recent years. Its users are primarily in the public safety and transportation sectors, but now oil firms, taxi companies, and others are using the technology as it can now handle more data traffic in addition to voice.

Big year ahead

The Middle East represents just 40 of the 788 TETRA contracts commissioned worldwide as of December 2005, or five per cent, but the coming year promises to be a big one as public sector budgets rise, spurred by oil receipts and booming Gulf economies.

The Qatar project was commissioned by the local telecom operator, Qtel, and came with a price tag of over $10 million, according to Kaveh Hosseinzadeh, CEO of Technical Engineering Support and Services (TESS), a subcontractor for R&S Bick, which developed the system. TESS works with system providers for project management, training and maintenance.

Hosseinzadeh said government clients require mobile communications systems that are secure and reliable. By employing a dedicated infrastructure of call towers, networks and handsets, TETRA voice and data calls are run over always-on networks and encrypted and then decoded to prevent intrusion.