Aladrén says: “Recently, there is
greater interest in DMR, which is
gaining market share – it is a real
option for many projects, especially
from a cost perspective. It is usually
a valid technology for small town
councils, which opt for a DMR Tier II
network, while if the deployment has a
regional scope, systems based on DMR
Tier III are more suitable. In Spain and
Portugal there are still many customers
who have analogue systems; this is
particularly so in the private sector, for
which DMR is offered as an interesting
alternative. In the Spanish case, there
are certain Autonomous Communities
that don’t have a regional trunking
network and even don’t have any plans
for their deployment yet.”
Turning to transport, he says: “It’s
clear that its present and immediate
future is linked with TETRA, without
losing sight of LTE for the medium and
long term. Unfortunately, Spain and
Portugal are not implementing new
transport projects, so in recent times we
are more focused on renovations and
extensions of existing systems.”
Spain
Simao Rocha, business development
director at Sepura, says Spain is a “very
active market” and he is optimistic
about its future prospects. Teltronic’s
Aladrén adds that Tetrapol is the
technology used by Spain’s national
The biggest users of TETRA
terminals in Portugal all say the
same thing: ‘We are desperate to
buy new radios’
security forces, while TETRA remains
the reference technology in many of the
Autonomous Communities for their
regional security networks (Catalonia,
Basque Country, Canary Islands,
Navarre and Galicia, among others),
as well as in other sectors such as
transport, with many TETRA systems
deployed in metros, trams and buses.
Rocha says while the country’s
nationwide network is Tetrapol, there
are plenty of regional and municipal
TETRA networks and most of those
user organisations that could move
from Tetrapol to TETRA have already
done so. He adds: “We currently have
multiple opportunities for the supply of
TETRA terminals in different regions
of Spain, Galicia, Catalona, Valencia
and Ceuta, which is part of Spain,
even if it is in Africa.”
Turning to the private sector,
Rocha says there is a tender process
for the supply of a new network and
terminal for Barcelona Airport and
Sepura is in its final stage. In addition,
Sepura is also involved in a project for
Madrid’s metro. He also says Zenon
Digital Radio, Sepura’s distributor in
the country, was recently acquired by
Cellnex, a very large organisation which
is promoting Sepura’s terminals to its
private sector customers.
Last year, Zenon and Adesal Telecom
supplied Onda City Council with
new TETRA digital radios for its local
police force – Onda being a town
in Valencia, with more than 25,000
inhabitants. The radios allow the force
to use COMDES, the TETRA network
offered to all organisations in the
Autonomous Community of Valencia
that provide crime prevention and
rescue services.
Rocha adds: “Our traditional
customers in the country are still
selecting TETRA as their preferred
technology even if there are strong
efforts from manufacturers of
broadband solutions to push
broadband. What is required by many
customers is an effective, good-quality
and reliable dual-mode TETRA/LTE
terminal with a small form factor.”
Aladrén says: “With a national
Tetrapol network deployed and
maintained by a telecommunications
operator, there are plans to migrate
that network to LTE technology. A
small portion of the spectrum around
450Mhz has already been reserved for
this use, and the allocation and final
destination of the digital dividend at
700Mhz hasn’t been decided yet. The
migration process and evolution of the
current national narrowband network
July 2019 @CritCommsToday 11