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Telstra, Motorola partner for emergency services spectrum

Telstra has signed a deal with Motorola Solutions that is expected to further the development of the emergency services' LANES capability, which will be trialled during the G20 Leaders Summit in Brisbane next month.
Written by Leon Spencer, Contributor

Telstra and Motorola have signed a deal that the companies say will further the development of the telco's LTE Advanced Network for Emergency Services (LANES) capability, which is set to be trialled during the G20 Leaders Summit in Brisbane in November.

The LANES capability is expected to be "enhanced" by Motorola Solutions' dynamic prioritisation, smart public safety applications, interoperability solutions, and public safety-optimised devices.

Telstra announced earlier this month that it would allocate specific "lanes" of its network spectrum to emergency services on its 4G network in Queensland for the trial in Queensland next month.

Last year, Telstra won the contract for the AU$457 million Queensland government wireless network for use by emergency services during the G20 Leaders Summit on November 15 and 16, and the Commonwealth Games in 2018.

Telstra Group managing director of networks Mike Wright said that the relationship with Motorola Solutions will enable development of the solution even further, and expand its range of applications and devices for emergency use.

"We have completed a number of successful trials of the LANES solution, allowing us to see that it is possible to provide dedicated services to a number of users while still managing the telecommunications needs of the general public," said Wright. "Our relationship with Motorola Solutions allows us to work together to enhance the service and develop additional solutions that can be tailored for the benefit of emergency services organisations."

The enhanced LANES system utilises dedicated spectrum resources augmented with prioritisation on Telstra's existing spectrum holdings. Telstra said it will also protect and extend interoperability with existing land mobile radio networks, and will meet agencies' needs for prioritisation, end-to-end security, and encryption.

Motorola Solutions senior vice president, Asia-Pacific and Middle East, Dr Mohammad Akhtar said that broadband innovations are allowing public safety organisations to "meet community expectations to be more agile to receive and share information".

"This is a significant opportunity for Australia's public safety industry. Agencies are already contemplating how to convert the masses of available data into usable intelligence. Our relationship with Telstra is intent on putting intelligence into the hands of the people who need it most," said Akhtar.

The announcement comes as the federal government introduces the so-called third tranche of its anti-terror legislation, the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2014, which is set to force Telstra and other telcos in Australia to retain customers' metadata for two years.

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