Two Georgia utilities companies, Cobb EMC and Diverse Power, have signed deals with Hytera Communications to deploy TETRA networks. The contracts are the first signed with US utilities firms since the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced last year it will permit the unrestricted use of TETRA technology.

The agreement with Cobb EMC includes a four-site UHF TETRA system and 340 subscriber units. Chip Nelson, Cobb EMC president and chief executive, said: “I believe Hytera’s TETRA solution will provide Cobb EMC with a ‘best-in-class’, cost-effective digital radio network. Once installed, it will make operations safer and provide us with a more efficient use of resources.”

Cobb EMC is a non-profit electric membership cooperative providing electric energy in Atlanta and Southwest Georgia. The company procured UHF 450–470 MHz 25 kHz channels that were formerly paging frequencies to help facilitate the project.

Gary Lorenz, Hytera’s vice-president of sales, said: “Although there was a beta-test of a TETRA system in New Jersey now moving forward to implementation, the Cobb EMC network will be the nation’s first fully deployed TETRA operation.

“We responded to the customer’s request for a hardened digital radio system capable of performing in the most demanding and critical situations like extreme weather with the technology we felt was ideal for their use pattern – TETRA.”

The second utilities company, Diverse Power, is a member-owned electric cooperative that provides reliable electric energy-related services in Georgia and Chambers County in Alabama. It is partnering with Hytera dealer Dean’s Commercial Two-Way to facilitate the combined TETRA project of eight sites and more than 140 subscriber units which also use 450–470 MHz spectrum. 

The networks are likely to launch this year, making them the first commercially operational TETRA networks in the United States.