£39m boost for London Olympics' emergency comms

The Home Office has announced a £39m deal to help emergency services comms cope during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The National Police Improvement Agency has signed the £39m contract with Airwave, the company that provides the mobile radio network used by every UK police force and currently being rolled out to every ambulance trust and Fire and Rescue service in the country, to fund an increase in the system's capacity in time for the 2012 Games.

As a result, the system will be able to cater for around 9,000 additional users from within the police, fire and ambulance services across the Olympic venues, the Home Office said.

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The contract will also help support public order policing activities involving several thousand officers within confined locations, and ensure Airwave can scale to cope with the risk of "a spontaneous major incident" without threatening day-to-day emergency and Olympic comms needs.

Security Minister Lord West said in a statement: "Investing now means the Airwave network system can be thoroughly tested before 2012 and will ensure it remains resilient during Games-time."

The two-way Tetra comms system has an important role to play during the London 2012 Olympics - with two Airwave networks being deployed, one for the emergency services to use, and a separate network for Games staff.