UK: Police told to send text messages because it is too expensive to speak on their radios | |
Anonymous Coward User ID: 1163188 Australia 11/15/2010 01:55 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
BROKEN User ID: 1080426 United States 11/15/2010 01:55 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Police Radio DOOM! "The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists." J. Edgar Hoover "Those who make Peaceful Revolution Impossible...Will make Violent Revolution Inevitable" -JFK :minimoran: |
Anonymous Coward (OP) User ID: 1164972 Germany 11/15/2010 01:57 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
Anonymous Coward (OP) User ID: 1164972 Germany 11/15/2010 01:59 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
Anonymous Coward (OP) User ID: 1164972 Germany 11/15/2010 02:05 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | corruption is behind the deal: Airwave Solutions is owned by Australian investment bank Macquarie, which bought it from mobile phone firm O2 three years ago. The infrastructure roll-out began in 2000 after Airwave’s original owner BT won a £2.5 billion Government contract to provide a secure digital radio service for the emergency services to replace the old analogue network. Critics claimed the deal had been done without the contract being put out to tender. Among those who questioned the way it had been handled was Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne – then an MEP. He tabled a question in the European Parliament in 2004, asking Brussels officials to check whether the British Government had obeyed the rules when awarding the contract. When BT was split up, responsibility for Airwave passed to O2, which was by then a separate company. Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Blair of Boughton faced embarrassing questions after he attended an England rugby match at Twickenham as a guest of O2 while he was still running the force four years ago. Lord Blair, who was in a private VIP box, was criticised by MPs for accepting hospitality from a company with direct commercial links to the Met. Read more: [link to www.dailymail.co.uk] |
Anonymous Coward User ID: 1163188 Australia 11/15/2010 02:07 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Its so fucking absurd Quoting: Anonymous Coward 1164972Not from the corporations POV, it´s a perfect businness model. The gov that decided this needs to be hung. But just think man all that money why the fuck does it need to cost that much? The reason it costs so much is because of kick backs to corrupt politicians who approve the company for the contract. |
Anonymous Coward (OP) User ID: 1164972 Germany 11/15/2010 02:10 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | But just think man all that money why the fuck does it need to cost that much? Quoting: Anonymous Coward 1163188The reason it costs so much is because of kick backs to corrupt politicians who approve the company for the contract. Indeed. Businness as usual unfortunately. Time for some global uprising... |
Anon123 User ID: 1165361 United Kingdom 11/15/2010 03:58 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Read some of the comments on the original Daily Mail article and you'll see how incorrect the report is. The report is misleading, their not being asked to send a text as such (SMS), their being asked to make more use of the SDM service (Short Data Message) in order to cut down on voice traffic. The SDM is a pre determined text message normally 1 to 16, ie, 1, will attend, 2, going to lunch, 3, back on duty etc, which gets flagged up as the original message in the Control Room, meaning simple every day messages can be sent with out setting up voice call traffic. Each Airwave handset will be on a fixed monthly tariff to include voice calls with some sort of fair use policy attached to it, the SDM side of it will be extremely cheap if not free, so its obviously been monitored and found that everyone is yacking too much and not using the data side enough. The fair use policy would be there not so much as a money spinner but as a Network performance issue making sure that the radio channels are available for real emergencies. This article is misleading. Status messaging is far easier to use than shouting up on the radio. Rather than tell the control room I have arrived at an incident verbally I can just press 6 on my radio and it automatically updates them. This keeps the air free if any of my colleagues need to shout up for assistance, name checks, etc. Definately makes life easier for officers. As a 25 year old PC I find the status messages much easier than waiting to get in and update the operator. Its easy to learn and its quick. The way this article makes it sound though is that we type each message - we don't they are all pre set and selected from a menu - choose the one you want and send it Unfortunately the report is just usual media hype and inaccuracy! |
Anonymous Coward User ID: 1164668 United States 11/15/2010 04:41 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
Anonymous Coward User ID: 1161562 Spain 11/15/2010 04:44 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
Airwave User ID: 1172921 United Kingdom 11/24/2010 06:24 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Airwave does not believe the story written in the Mail on Sunday reflects the full facts. Please follow the link below for our statement which gives the accurate background to this story, and sets out our perspective on the issues raised. [link to www.airwavenewshub.com] Disclosure: I work for Airwave in its communications function. Sue Quigley. |