Airbus upgrades Bulgarian TETRA network

The public security network in Bulgaria will be extended and modernised, with Airbus winning the contract to undertake these updates.

Bulgaria is among the first countries in the world to enable seamless group communication between public safety TETRA network and commercial smartphone users.

The network of the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior (MoI) currently provides secure communication services to almost 20,000 users through over 170 base stations.

Airbus has delivered new base stations, the new DXTA TETRA server, 10 dispatching workstations, a network management system (NMS) upgrade, automatic vehicle location (AVL), a new billing solution and, most importantly, the capability to allow broadband users to join the TETRA communication network via the use of the Tactilon Agnet application.

“This realisation marks an outstanding progress for Bulgaria,” said Olivier Koczan, head of secure land communications at Airbus.

“With the implementation of our Tactilon Agnet, the Bulgarian public safety network has now become one of the most modern TETRA networks and one of the first in the world enabling seamless group communication between TETRA and commercial smartphone users.”

The contract for network extension was signed in April this year and the final acceptance was granted in early October.

“Our relation with the Bulgarian MoI dates back many years, when the decision was taken to build a nationwide TETRA network in the country,” said Koczan.

“The ambitious delivery schedule of the new contract was made possible by the very close cooperation between the Bulgarian MoI, Telcom Engineering Ltd and Airbus teams.”

The network is used by public safety users such as police, border guards, fire brigades and rescue services. It has been extended to provide additional coverage to the European Union’s external borders.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/Petrovich12

Follow us on Twitter and Facebook