Hyderabad, July 04: The wireless sets that the police are seen fiddling with, to get in touch with their colleagues, were indeed a test of patience, felt several Hyderabad City police officials.
Usage steps involved pressing the knob to start speaking, waiting for a subordinate or colleague to reply after a brief pause and of course listening to the ever present static.
All this resulted in the senior repeating instructions till he or she lost all patience. Further, wireless sets were turning out to be a major setback in times of emergencies.
But not anymore.
The Hyderabad city police is all set to acquire the latest high frequency Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) wireless systems for swift and better communication among city police officials.
Police sources told Expresso that an amount of Rs 9 crore has been sanctioned under the Modernisation of Police (MoP) recently and tenders for the same are being floated shortly. “The beauty of TETRA wireless sets is that besides passing on instructions, we can sent data like photographs or videos to our colleagues and subordinates at the press of a button,” sources said. While the police of cities like Kolkata, Ahmedabad have begun using these wireless sets, Hyderabad and Delhi are in the process of acquiring them.
Explaining its features, sources said that TETRA, originally developed in Europe, would have its own base stations and exchanges.
It has special functions like group communication (without having to press the knob and wait for a reply from the other side, which is the setback in the present wireless sets), dispatching and instant communication.
Further, the radio channels are in a common pool and there is automatic channel allocation. In the conventional sets, all users have to tune the set to the same frequency or channel and only then they can hear each other, that too with great difficulty.
TETRA, which is fully digital and has better voice quality has more advanced data features. “It is just like the GSM phone. It would enable us to have quick one-to-one and one-to-many communication which is essential in our daily work,” they explained adding that in the conventional sets, individual and person-to-person private conversation is not possible as all those who tune into that frequency can hear it.
The best part is that TETRA ensures maximum security while police officials converse with their colleagues.
“There is absolutely no disturbance and if we want to pass on specific instructions to only one officer, we can do so easily. We can easily manage the field operations in times of emergencies, especially when handling violent mobs (when wireless conversation plays a major role), VVIP visits among others,” officials explained.
A police official said that the tenders are being floated shortly and TETRA would be made available to the city police in the next few months. The existing handsets would then be given to their counterparts in the districts.
“This project is being taken up in phases.
After Hyderabad, it would be slowly extended across the state,” they informed.
-Agencies