In message , at 08:12:22 on Thu, 1 Aug
2019, Someone Somewhere remarked:
No, because the emergency services contract (which this is
piggy-backed* upon) is 4G.

Is this something to replace the tetra based network in the UK?
*Yes. And it's also much delayed. But that's not really a
surprise for a* large government IT project!

It's also going to be a total waste of time and money. Tetra just
worked, why change it..?
*I think the problem is it's proprietary, and rather old. Replacing
worn* out equipment and paying ongoing licence fees, was regarded as
less* effective than using an 'open source' idea like 4G.

Wasn't it also the lack of development of the standard and basically
being stuck on GPRS like speeds?
Yes, that's part of it. And the new handsets are also half the price
of Airwave ones.

What's concerning is that they are still rolling out a 4G solution
when 5G is already here...
The Emergency Network requires the whole country to be flooded with
4G. They aren't even sufficiently close to that yet. Let alone start
from scratch with 5G.
The original switch-off date for Airwave was supposed to be the end
of 2019. Many don't expect that to happen for a least five years, and
that's sticking with 4G.

Well yes, but surely if it's layered on top of 4G it could also be
layered on top of 5G and any subsequent radio data bearer of a similar
ilk? I wasn't suggesting it could only be on 4G but made forward
compatible so it wasn't getting to be obsolete by the time rollout was
completed.

The money to put the 4G on the tube is coming from the much-delayed
Emergency Network project. There isn't any money to install 5G, and it's
far too late to start changing the Emergency Network spec to include 5G.

That's the kind of thing which makes large government IT projects even
later and more over budget than they already are.
--
Roland Perry