Oz company nicks UK cop contract

AIRWAVE – which is ultimately owned by Australia's Macquarie investments – has just won the right to supply UK Bobbies with wireless PDAs so that they can access the Police National Computer on the beat.

The deal is part of efforts by UK agency, the National Policing Improvement Agency, to put data terminals in the hands of 10,000 'frontline' police officers by October 2008.

In order to do so there's some £50 million in funding up for grabs. Now that Airwave's offering – officially described as the Airwave Acceleration Package – has been 'officially approved' by the NPIA, that should make it easier for UK police forces to get their hands on the funding and therefore the gear.

Besides being able to get onto the PNC and other police databases, the devices will act as 'electronic' notebooks and remote terminals for specific police forms.

'The Review of Policing: Final report' put together by Sir Ronnie Flanagan advocated that a "standardised mobile data infrastructure" should be adopted to prevent the spread of widely different mobile information systems.

There's also a hint that the same system might spread to other emergency services – such as fire and ambulance – thus making it easier to share information.

Airwave points out that when Lancashire Constabulary implemented an Airwave system, it helped keep police officers on the beat for one hour longer than previously possible.

There's a catch, however. Airwave's network was originally built by O2 using the TETRA standard for secure digital mobile communications. It gives good geographical coverage and is encrypted to prevent RF scanning hacks.

However, the speed of the data connexion is low – equivalent to GPRS (2.5G) not even 3G or HSPA. Anecdotal evidence suggests TETRA terminals didn't work very well underground when London's Tube was bombed, either.

Luckily the European standards body has produced TEDS (Tetra Enhanced Data Service) which should bring 3G data speeds to TETRA. Just not yet, though.

Airwave does have a get-out clause, though. It says that its Acceleration Package "combines a choice of networks, applications and support services." So police forces won't necessarily have to choose TETRA to carry the data.

Unless Transport for London eventually manages to roll out GSM coverage to the Tube, no phones the police will possess will work underground, of course. µ