Atlantis, The Palm is one of the most spectacular developments in a city known for spectacular structures. It was also the first commercial organization in United Arab Emirates to operate its own dedicated, private TETRA Network. A system was supplied by Etelm, the French TETRA infrastructure manufacturer, and was implemented by the local systems integration specialist Microhit Technologies.

“We worked with the Atlantis Palm Island just before it opened”, explained Paul Ward, sales director of Etelm. “Because of the nature of that hotel and the fact that they have a lot of VIP visitors, they wanted a high-security system. They certainly didn’t want to rely on a public system, so they wanted their own private technology – and they chose TETRA specifically for that purpose. 

“Phase 1 was a two-site TETRA system covering the main public areas, including the car parks, so there’s a lot of underground, indoor coverage technologies. And then they recently expanded to a four-site system with two additional sites.”

Why did the hotel choose Etelm’s technology? “Partly because we demonstrated to them the flexibility, and the fact that we’ve got a lot of expertise for indoor applications. We optimized our system to give them the widest indoor coverage using several diversity paths, and that was a good solution for them to minimize the number of base stations and yet maximize the coverage.

“This was the very first allowed commercial TETRA system in the United Arab Emirates, so it was quite a major breakthrough”, Mr Ward added. “The regulator has become a lot more relaxed since this system and they are allowing TETRA for oil and gas and other applications.”

With the system extensions, radio coverage now extends outside into adjacent areas such as a water park.

 “We consider communications within the resort critical to our overall operational needs to maintain the high level of service for our guests”, commented J J Raath, vice-president for security at the resort. “TETRA provides the ideal solution in terms of audio quality, coverage and security.”