New NZ emergency services radio network plans off-track

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https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/04/23/new-e ... off-track/

New emergency services radio network plans off-track
The country’s new billion dollar emergency service communications network is already behind schedule, but those in charge assure the public the project will be delivered on time

by Emma Hatton 23/04/2024

Beyond 2025 the existing emergency communications network will have degraded to an extent that the likelihood of failure and resultant loss of availability to emergency services presents an unacceptable risk, the Government has been told. A new radio network for emergency responders should already be up and running in Canterbury, with one in Wellington hot on its heels, but the rollout is still months away. The previous Labour government signed off on the new Public Safety Network solution in August 2022 at a cost of $1.4 billion over 10 years.

Next Generation Critical Communications, a business unit within the police, is responsible for developing the network on behalf of Fire and Emergency, Police, Hato Hone St John and Wellington Free Ambulance.

The network is made up of three main solutions: Cellular, Personal Alerting, and Land Mobile Radio.

The latter is the core of the new network, a new land mobile radio service, which was supposed to already be up and running in Canterbury, with Wellington soon to be completed. Tasman was supposed to then follow in September. Early iterations of the plan also had a pilot site in operation from later 2023. Next Generation Critical Communications director Steve Ferguson acknowledged there had been delays so far, but that overall progress was good. “Testing of the core network in a lab environment is well advanced to prove the network design works and can integrate into the emergency services’ systems,” he said. “From the middle of this year, there will be a small-scale fully functioning Land Mobile Radio network in South Canterbury with eight new digital radio sites available for the emergency services to carry out testing using operational scenarios, including to test new radios and devices.”
The new network promises to be built with sufficient resilience to allow emergency services to communicate in the event of a significant natural disaster. It would operate via a ‘push to talk’ function which would also provide location services.

State-owned enterprise Kordia and Christchurch technology company Tait Communications won the contract to build the new network made up of more than 400 radio sites. “The build programme is underway around the country, and while there have been delays to the delivery of the first regions in the schedule, Tait Kordia Joint Venture has committed to completing the overall regional network delivery programme to meet the contracted due date of late 2026,” Ferguson said. Kordia has faced internal disruptions when the first site in Canterbury was due to be implemented. In March its chief executive, Shaun Rendell, was forced to unexpectedly quit because of an accident, with chief operating officer Jason Fullerton-Smith covering him while on sick leave. In April a director of Kordia, Neil Livingston, was appointed interim chief executive, with the board planning to conduct an extensive executive search process for a new permanent chief executive.

However, the delays were signalled well before this. In an August 2023 briefing, officials told the then-Police Minister Ginny Andersen Crown Infrastructure Partners had been involved in an attempt to get the programme back on track. “NGCC and CIP have been working closely with Tait Kordia to progress the Land Mobile Radio Solution since signing the contract on 23 August 2023. “Over the last six months a significant amount of effort has gone into working with Tait Kordia to support them to deliver the agreed contract deliverables for the project.”

Emergency services will be testing elements of the new Public Safety Network Land Mobile Radio on a South Canterbury small-scale network ahead of a national rollout. Source: Next Generation Critical Communications. Next Generation and Crown Infrastructure Partners also asked for a meeting with the relevant oversight ministers to “help navigate the issues outlined above and support NGCC and CIP to progress a successful way forward to ensure there are no further delays to the project”. Ferguson said the design phase took Tait Kordia longer than expected due to its highly technical and complex nature. “The first phase of the project was to design the Land Mobile Radio network, considering things like spectrum use as well as the number and physical location of sites across New Zealand. This required a large amount of highly technical and complex planning to ensure the emergency services get a Land Mobile Radio service they can rely on from ‘go-live’. “The network design phase took Tait Kordia Joint Venture’s radio engineers more time than anticipated to achieve the necessary high degree of certainty and confidence that the network would meet the emergency services’ requirements. The network design is complete and is now enabling the current site acquisition and build phase.”

An earlier briefing in December 2022 mentioned risks to the rollout because of the availability of spectrum (radio frequency) and resourcing challenges.Estimates are that the radio communications network currently used by New Zealand’s emergency services frontline responders won’t last past next year. “Over the past 20 years, the requirement for a refresh of the communications technology and infrastructure has been deferred resulting in a material infrastructure deficit. Emergency services agencies have worked hard to extend the life of the existing radio network; however, it has reached the point where replacement can no longer be avoided. The existing radio network must be replaced,” officials wrote in a briefing to Police Minister Mark Mitchell late last year. “Beyond 2025 the existing communications network will have degraded to an extent that the likelihood of failure and resultant loss of availability to emergency services presents an unacceptable risk.” Ferguson said Next Generation had undertaken work with the existing agencies to ensure their radio services remained fit for purpose until the new network was finished.

Aside from the new Land Mobile Radio, the plan is also to procure Compact Rapid Deployables, which provide temporary cellular coverage when networks are unavailable. “Compact Rapid Deployables are being built specifically for Public Safety Network users use during major emergencies such as Cyclone Gabrielle. They are small mobile units, and designed to be easily deployed by a single person in less than 15 minutes. “They will be stored across the country in strategically selected geographic locations ready for deployment as required,” an NGCC briefing explains. Hourua, a One NZ and Spark joint venture, is contracted to deliver the cell service aspect of the programme, which is on time and on budget. The service will mean emergency responders’ cellular communications get priority over other users when cellular networks are congested or degraded. A personal alerting service provided over a stabilised paging network is also part of the plan.

Background paper
https://www.rsm.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/ ... utlook.pdf
https://ngcc.govt.nz/public-safety-network/media/
https://www.police.govt.nz/about-us/pub ... iness-case

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In response to some criticism in the media, the Lead Entity for Next Generation Critical Communications has posted the following

"The Public Safety Network will be fully delivered in 2026 and is made up of three complementary solutions:

1. a new secure digital Land Mobile Radio network providing a single highly resilient network for the emergency services. It will have more than 400 transmission sites across the country and introduce new dual-band handheld portable radios and mobile radios (in vehicles) for responders

2. Cellular Services: PSN Roaming (now live) provides responders with access to both Spark and One NZ networks to extend coverage and provide a back-up network. PSN Priority (live late 2024) gives emergency responders network access ahead of all other users at times of network congestion or degradation, like in a large emergency or event so they can do their jobs and stay safe as they serve the community

3. Personal Alerting provides ongoing reliable paging capability for Fire and Emergency NZ and Hato Hone St John who use the service for communicating with their volunteer and specialist groups for responses in remote communities".


Somebody on a Kiwi forum who clearly has access to briefing information has recently posted:
"Last I read, there will be a trial in the South Canterbury area where police cars will have two radios (The current police owned P25 network, and the new GRN radios connected to a 8 site P25 Phase 2 AES Encrypted demonstration network) before rolling out across Canterbury.. users will then migrate over, as well as builds happening through the country, region by region... then the current Police ESA network (including fire who use police repeaters) and current police owned P25 systems will be turned off, as well as the VHF network for StJ (and the UHF stuff in CHCH, WLG Free use the police owned P25 network there)"

Update on P25 Site numbers:
Approx 440 sites are being planned - 270 UHF Sites and 170 VHF Sites .... I have seen 447 quoted in one document
11 autonomous areas interconnected
4 Emergency Services initially (NZ Police, Fire & Emergency NZ, St John NZ and Wellington Free Ambulance)
25,000 radios - Tait 9800 multiband UHF/VHF portables & 25w mobiles and Tait 9900 multiprotocol P25/DMR for interoperability
(sourced from Tait via their website and from an APCO25 Conference presentation document about the new nationwide system March 2024).