DMR Tier IIII or TETRA?

Many large organisations need resilient, high-capacity two-way radio networks with wide-area coverage, particularly those in the utilities, petrochemical and aviation industries. Around the world companies rely on TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) for their mission- critical communications, but in the UK things are a little more restricted. While there are a few private business radio assignments for TETRA such as Heathrow airport, the centre:MK shopping centre in Milton Keynes and some offshore wind farms, Ofcom notes that these have been difficult to accommodate in its spectrum configuration. Part of the issue is that only the emergency services and Arqiva have spectrum in the harmonised bands with the standard channel arrangement. Ofcom’s line is that it assesses requests for TETRA on a case by case basis, but usually with a warning that it is difficult to find assignments in a suitable configuration.

Fortunately, there are other options. One of TETRA’s most important features for those looking to run a network with many users – trunking – took a leap forward in availability when it was implemented in the DMR standard back in 2012.