Interagency operative radio communications network to be created for Estonia

Journalists please note:

You are invited to the signing of the contract to be held tomorrow, 28 September, at 3.00 pm in the hall on the IV floor of the Ministry of the Interior.

The ORC procurement contract is to be signed by Interior Minister Kalle Laanet and Matti Peltola, Director General of EADS Secure Networks Oy. An overview of the possibilities of the operative radio communications system and how it is to be used in Estonia will be given by Hannes Märtin, the ORC project manager for the Ministry of the Interior.

In 2003 the Ministry of the Interior produced a conceptual plan for the construction of an interagency operative radio communications network which stressed the need for a network that would operate without interference and cover the entire country. You can examine the conceptual plan on the website of the Ministry of the Interior at http://www.siseministeerium.ee/atp/index.php?id=4321.

The assessment produced by the crisis committee of the Government of the Republic following the storms of January 2005 regarding interagency activity during this period also confirmed the urgent need for the development of an ORC network in order to improve the exchange of information in emergency situations. Technical problems (mobile communications breakdowns) associated with power failures during the storms hampered communication between rescue services and the exchange of information with county crisis committees.

The ORC system, to be completed in 2007, 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 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.

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 to be signed tomorrow 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.

The total amount of the contract is 183 million Estonian kroons, 90% of which 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.