Currenta, a leading operator of specialist chemical business parks in Germany, has ordered 500 TETRA digital hand-portable radios, of which around 150 will be intrinsically safe.

The company has chosen Sepura radios and the deal includes SRG3900 mobile radios and STP8000 hand-portables radios as well as the intrinsically safe STP8X radio, which will be utilized by the specialist fire services located on-site.

“TETRA is becoming increasingly attractive to commercial operations that see the security and functionality benefits that this technology brings”, said Kasper Barfoed, Sepura’s regional director for Northern Europe.

“Currenta also needs, on occasions, to be able to communicate with public safety authorities, so using Sepura TETRA radios also makes this easily achievable. This contract demonstrates not only the breadth of Sepura’s offering, but also the fact that we are able to supply leading-edge solutions in many areas.

“For example, the reduced keypad STP8X, which is a key component of this contract – and the full keypad version, which was launched at PMR Expo in November 2012 – are the only TETRA hand-portables to be approved to the latest, and highly demanding, version 6 of the IECEx/ATEX standard.”

Meanwhile, the Norwegian police service has selected Sepura radios to fulfil the landmark first tranche of a nationwide project to renew the radio communications system. The Nødnett (“emergency network”) contract, which covers the first two phases of the project, was awarded to VHF Communication AS, Sepura’s long-standing partner in Norway.

In August 2012, the Norwegian Directorate for Public Safety Radio Emergency Communication (DNK) signed agreements with three suppliers of radio terminals for use on its network. These agreements entitled the suppliers to tender for the successive phases of the nationwide rollout. VHF won the police tender for the first 3 phases of the Nødnett rollout (including the greater Oslo area) and will be the sole supplier of radio terminals for Phases 1 and 2. This will include Sepura’s recently-launched STP9000 hand-portable radios, as well the SRG3900 mobile radio, which will be installed in cars, boats and motorbikes in a variety of configurations. The radios will be used by selected police districts and were chosen because of their robustness, usability and high quality.

Commenting on the deal, Lars-Magnus Gustafsson, Sepura’s business development manager for Scandinavia, said: “This is an important step for Sepura. We are already market leaders in Sweden and Denmark, so it is not surprising that the quality, reliability and excellent feature-set that Sepura’s radios offer appealed to the Norwegian police. Our partners in both these markets are part of the same group of companies, VHF Gruppen, and VHF Communication, and they are highly experienced in both public safety communications issues, as well as being highly knowledgeable on Sepura solutions.”