A new tramway line in the city of Zaragoza has joined a growing list of Spanish radio users relying on TETRA systems from Teltronic. Zaragoza is Teltronic’s home base.

The radio installation, supplied by the Zaragoza Tramway Construction Consortium, includes four Teltronic Nebula TETRA base stations; a fully redundant controller with SIP connections to two VoIP PABXs; a transport network made up of a ring of 15 and 23 GHz microwave links; and on-board tram radio equipment, which includes a modern operator console as well as personal radio units for the crew.

The network is used mainly for the transmission of data between the trams and the operations and control centre, including periodic location service, traffic parameters, open and predefined text messages, as well as call requests (normal, urgent and emergency) and the activation of public address loudspeakers.

Island radio

Another new TETRA system on Spanish soil is a public safety and emergency network for the Balearic Islands of Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. Made up of 36 base stations operating at 380–400 MHz, it is expected to reach over 95 per cent geographical coverage by the time it is completed in December. Owned by the Balearic Islands Government, the TETRAib network is designed to be shared by more than 3000 users from the full range of emergency services and local, island and autonomous government entities.

As well as the standard voice call capabilities – group calls, individual calls, emergency call, full-duplex call etc. – a wide range of data services is possible over the TETRA network, including GPS in mobile and hand-held radios, Virtual Private Network (VPN) functionality, dynamic groups and the possibility of interconnection with public networks and advanced network management and monitoring services.

The infrastructure, supplied by Teltronic with the system integrator Sampol, uses TCP/IP connections with all critical network elements duplicated to guarantee uninterrupted service.