|
“I think is that is where the main growth is going to be from Southern Africa”, he says. “The big companies, like the traditional Motorolas, Cassidians and that, will remain the leading companies, in my view, on the larger systems. But in the other areas, the likes of Rohill, Hytera (I don’t know about the others, but those are the two that are well represented in South Africa and have proven track records here) have shown that they are willing to make sure that the systems that are implemented work. “This is something that international suppliers or manufacturers and system houses should take good cognizance of: that they are going to see smaller systems out of Africa – infrastructure-wise, cloud-wise – but they have to be willing to hold the hand and make sure that the systems work. It’s not where you can jump on an aircraft and within half an hour you are at the switching centre of the network.” Affordable TETRA Beyond public safety, Mr Kloppers can point to successful TETRA applications in South Africa’s mines, in heavy industry (TETRA systems at two large petrochemical plants will be featured in the next issue of this magazine), and in several municipalities where they provide support for local public services. But for public service bodies in particular, a TETRA installation may represent a heavy financial investment. How do they justify such expenditure? “TETRA is affordable if they can get to the point where they understand that TETRA is a cloud”, Mr Kloppers emphasizes. “TETRA is not another walkie-talkie system. The typical mobile radio salesman that started off selling TETRA was selling a replacement for analogue, and that’s not what you should sell. You should sell a solution for the total municipal and other user requirement.” Often in these cases, the perceived alternative to a TETRA network is a push-to-talk (PTT) system based upon low-cost mobile phones. “Somewhere along the line, somebody has to make a big thing about this”, comments Roelf Kloppers, philosophically. “GSM-PTT was locally trialled in an emergency service and it was proved that it is never going to work. It’s an ill-informed lobbyist thing: somebody has an interest in a business that has a GSM connection and now they are pushing to put in a GSM solution. Well, they can quickly sell phones and in many cases the user likes it because they have cheap cellphones then – company cellphones that they can use for illicit purposes.” But then, he warns, the airtime bills will start to come in – and the GSM system may no longer seem quite such a good deal. Shortening the equipment repair cycleSupporting the growing TETRA community in South Africa is its own TETRA Academy, a training centre Is hosted in Port Elizabeth by the Faculty of Engineering of Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Set up during and in support of South Africa’s preparations for hosting the 2010 World Football Cup tournament, this Academy is helping to overcome skill shortages by turning out well-qualified TETRA engineers and technicians, as well as offering opportunities for telecommunications research up to doctoral level. Alongside this activity, a locally-based TETRA industry is beginning to emerge in South Africa, creating applications and system add-ons with local needs and circumstances in mind. But how can the TETRA industry in general contribute to the growth of TETRA in Africa? Somewhere near the top of any South African user’s list would be a commitment by manufacturers to support local repair and maintenance of their products. This is because it can be discouragingly expensive and time-consuming to obtain support from overseas. For users who depend on technical back-up from abroad, a simple repair to a radio unit, or even just buying a new knob, may take months, while generating a mass of paperwork and handling fees. To return a radio to the manufacturer, a user organization in South Africa must find the original customs documents relating to its importation. Then it must wait weeks for the shipment to be cleared through customs on its way out and, after the repair has been completed, again on the way back. And if the faulty unit happens to be a part of the network infrastructure, one or more radio cells of the TETRA network may be out of service during all this time. Another way manufacturers could help, suggests Roelf Kloppers, of the Southern African TETRA Association, would be by offering locally-available standby equipment. “There are methods that we have used before with analogue, where, if for instance you buy 10 handheld radios, there’s one ‘spare’ radio in the cupboard but you are not allowed to use it for normal purposes”, he says. “On the infrastructure side, I think it’s very important to look at redundancy – and not redundancy in the same cabinet, but redundancy as a separate thing. Or separate normally functional equipment that can be slotted into the same frame. But redundant equipment on a turnaround basis in a cost-effective way – because it’s not cost-effective to have spare base stations sitting in your store.”
|