Ministry of Interior granted government permission to sign operational radio communications procurement contract

Press release no. 144

Today, 21 September, the Government of the Republic granted the Ministry of the Interior permission to enter into a procurement contract with EADS Secure Networks Oy for the development, delivery and installation of an operative radio communications (ORC) system. The cost of the procurement contract is almost 183 million Estonian kroons. "Negotiations regarding the contract have proven to be highly complicated and time-consuming," explained Hannes Märtin, ORC project manager with the Ministry of the Interior. "It was important to the ministry that the state be given as long-term a guarantee as possible of the system operating properly. We are planning to sign the contract by the end of next week."

The ORC system will be used in Estonia to safeguard national security, people's lives and health and law and order. The network will ensure the cooperation needed between Schengen states among the police, Border Guard, security police, Rescue and Tax and Customs Boards and the defence forces. It will also be possible for other institutions involved in crisis management to be connected to the network if required. Adopting the ORC network nation-wide will create the preconditions for the guarding that is required on the external borders of the Schengen zone as well as a better basis for use of data within the Schengen information system.

The ORC network must support the confidentiality, immunity and reliability expected of such operative systems as well as independence from other public communications systems, and also ensure the functioning of the network under extraordinary circumstances and in states of emergency.

According to the contract Estonia will be purchasing a radio system that is based on TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) technology. The system is made up of the network infrastructure, dispatchers' work stations and hand-held and mobile radio communications terminals. The networks that are currently in use in Estonia will remain in service until the implementation of the new system.

90% of the total cost of the contract is to be covered from Schengen Facility funds, while the remaining 10% will come from state budget resources throughout the year following the adoption of the system. The new ORC network is planned to be put into use during 2007.

The Ministry of the Interior announced that EADS Secure Networks Oy's offer had won the tender bid in June 2006. The principles of the assessment criteria were the price of the offer, the technical solution, the period of performing the work and the operational costs.