Friday fragments - comms news from around the web for 17 April 2015

A round-up of the week's critical communications and public safety radio news for Friday, 17 April 2015.

Comms Connect Sydney program. The full program of speakers and workshops for Comms Connect Sydney (3-5 June) has been released. The two-day event will be packed with presentations from industry leaders from a variety of sectors. Make sure you're there. Full details are on the Comms Connect website.

Back to the bunker. In the 1960s, the USA built a huge military command centre - the headquarters of NORAD, the North American Air Defence Command - underneath Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado. Buried deep, it could withstand nuclear blasts and all attempts at invasion. In 2006, the military decided to shift the HQ outside, to a site in Colorado Springs. Now, you guessed it, they're going to shift their communications gear back into the mountain, concerned by the rising threat of a nuclear strike by rogue countries such as North Korea. Electronic equipment out in the open is vulnerable to the electromagnetic pulse from airburst nuclear explosions.

Rail radio woes. A US senator is lobbying the US FCC to let Amtrak police communicate directly with public first responders. Under the current law, first responder frequencies can be used by frequencies to be accessed by police and fire authorities, and beach patrols and school buses, but not the Amtrak police.

Nokia's 5G test tops 10 Gbps. Nokia has tested 5G technology at 73 GHz and achieved peak data speeds of 10 gigabits per second, eclipsing Samsung's recent 7.5 Gbps.

Tower properties sold for US$369m. US company iHeartMedia has sold a portfolio of radio tower properties to Vertical Bridge for a whopping US$369 million, on a sale-leaseback basis. iHeartMedia is a leading US radio station operator.

Military comms thriving. The military communications market will reach US$40 billion by 2020, according to research by the Bharat Book Bureau