Australia gets the vote in Papua New Guinea

ComGroup Australia has been awarded a contract for a major upgrade to the Royal Papua New Guinea Police Constabulary two-way radio system. The technology will be used to support command and control operations for the upcoming national elections.

The project involves the supply of handheld, mobile and portable radios with an extensive network of fixed, mobile and portable repeater stations. A package of training and support services has also been supplied to ensure a strong level of technical independence.

The system has been designed for rapid deployment into provincial areas and regions as required by the operational needs.

"We are keen to ensure the elections will be conducted in a timely and proper manner. This technology will ensure we are equipped to conduct our operations as efficiently and effectively as possible," director of communications, Chief Inspector Mike D Corren, said.

Field tests in the chosen frequency bands have recorded good performance in very rugged and diverse terrain. Communications engineer Win Jipris was involved in the selection process for a technology partner.

"We searched extensively for a supplier who could meet our technology requirements and be able to provide the training and support that we need to gain our own in-house skills. The Simoco radios supplied by ComGroup have proven themselves to operate in our very demanding conditions while being extremely flexible with many programmable options that we can bring on line as required. We also found the ability to convert mobiles to cross-band or in-band vehicle repeaters as being very useful," Jipris said.

All terminal equipment has been supplied as "P25 Ready' so that the digital operation on the APCO P25 digital standard can be deployed in future.