Friday fragments - comms news from around the web for 14 November 2014

A round-up of the week's critical communications and public safety radio news for Friday, 14 November 2014.

Canadian military comms upgrade. General Dynamics Canada will upgrade more than 11,000 radios and 6800 vehicle interface units in the Canadian army in a three-year contract worth around US$108.5 million. The upgrade will enable simultaneous operation of voice, messaging and positional awareness reporting while increasing the throughput and speed of data transmission.

FirstNet publishes RFI results. FirstNet received 122 responses to its recent RFI and 63 responses during the Public Notice comment period. “This was a success for both FirstNet and our stakeholders," said TJ Kennedy, acting general manager for FirstNet. “Many of the items discussed in both the RFI and the Public Notice could have significant impact on the economics of the network and the various solutions proposed by vendors."

Is SMS the answer? In a recent blog post, Alan Dye of Boomerang makes the case for using SMS 'threading' technology for critical communications. “Threaded communications allow companies to match inbound responses to outbound messages. In an emergency, this means that an individual can be at the centre of multiple incidents and manage multiple escalations. SMS can be used to send organisation-wide messages to alert staff, but even when managing multiple incidents, operations can reply individually to all specific responses - and be assured that information will go to the right cascade and be escalated accordingly."

Dow chooses Motorola. Dow Chemical has chosen Motorola TETRA for its premises in The Netherlands. The contract “includes the delivery of a future-proof Dimetra IP Compact solution, Motorola MTP850Ex ATEX TETRA portable radios, Motorola MTM5400 TETRA mobile radios as well as MTS4 and MTS1 TETRA base stations for more than 880 users".

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