Government Contract Awarded (Police Digital Radio)

British Telecommunications PLC
8 March 2000


          BT WINS ITS BIGGEST EVER GOVERNMENT CONTRACT

             TO SET UP POLICE DIGITAL RADIO SERVICE

                                

     BT today announced that it has been awarded a major £2.5 billion

Government contract to provide a national digital radio service

for Britain's police forces.

     The Public Safety Radio Communications Project (PSRCP),

awarded to BT, aims to provide all police forces in England,

Wales and Scotland with fully digital, state-of-the-art secure

mobile radio communication services. It is BT's biggest ever

contract with the Government.

     The service will offer users ready access to the police

national computer and other computerised databases. It will

permit the transmission of photographs and graphics and provide

greatly improved voice communications with key safety features

for officers. Individual police forces will have access to a very

high level of coverage designed to meet their individual needs.


     The new service will offer the police a universal crime-

fighting tool, which will help them to make most efficient use of

police resources and at the same time help them to provide a

safer environment for every citizen. It will also be available

for take-up by other public safety organisations.

     Under the contract, BT will be the service provider and

prime contractor for the new service in England, Wales and

Scotland, which is expected to generate around £2.5 billion at

today's prices - excluding inflation - in the next 19 years.

     It represents the culmination of four years' work by the

Quadrant consortium headed by BT.

      Sir Iain Vallance, chairman of BT, said: 'This project will

deliver the most modern communications service anywhere in the

world for emergency services and the wider public safety

community.

     'Together with the Home Office, the Police Information

Technology Organisation (PITO), and representatives of the

emergency services, BT and its partners in Quadrant have worked

extremely hard to make the vision of a national digital radio

service a reality.

     'This initiative will deliver improved efficiency and

greater co-operation between the nation's emergency service teams

and the wider public safety community, brought about by a modern,

efficient communications service.'


     This new service will be based on the Terrestrial Trunked Radio

(TETRA) digital standard.

     Its roll-out across Britain is being phased, with the police

forces and other public safety organisations in most need of a

replacement communications system being catered for first.

Completion of the roll-out is expected by 2005.

     Work is already well under way on a pilot, which will be run

in  conjunction  with  Lancashire  Police.  Lancashire  Fire  and

Rescue,  British Transport Police and Lancashire Ambulance  Trust

will also take part.

     The  first wave of officers in Lancashire Police will  start

using the new service later this year and the pilot will be used as a

test-bed to learn and gain experience before the national roll-out to 

other emergency services.

     The  award  of  the  service  contract  follows  significant

milestones  already achieved by the Quadrant team. These include customer

workshops, regular  meetings with all forces, engineering and user trials,

the submission of the project blueprint and the establishment of

the pilot in Lancashire.

      As  part  of  the  new  agreement, BT has  let  substantial

contracts to its business partners. The two primary partners  are

Motorola  for  the  radio infrastructure and  TRW  Inc.  for  the

systems  integration,  both  members  of  the  original  Quadrant

consortium.

     BT  has  also  established a dedicated  team  to  take  this

initiative  forward.  The  customer  facing  part  of  the  team,

responsible for sales, marketing and solutions will be called  BT

Quadrant, while the tremendous task of building and operating the

network  will  fall  to  BT  Airwave. They  will  also  look  for

opportunities to take the experience from the PSRCS and use it in

other markets, including overseas.