This year’s TETRA World Congress, staged in Budapest, provided visitors with an opportunity to catch up with the latest developments in technology and applications

Staged in Budapest in May, the 2011 TETRA World Congress provided the international TETRA community with an opportunity to see and discuss the latest TETRA products and services – and also to learn about experience and developments in digital radio during the conference sessions alongside. Featuring keynote addresses and panel discussions, the conference programme included streams dedicated to TETRA for industrial and  energy applications, network innovations, complementary technologies and application development. One session was dedicated to presentations in the Hungarian language.

Highlights of this year’s World Congress were the first wave of TETRA TEDS radio products for data-intensive applications and an opportunity to celebrate two recent milestones for the TETRA standard: the number of TETRA countries worldwide had just passed the 120 mark; and a gateway into the North American market had at last been opened for TETRA, following a long-fought campaign by the TETRA Association and manufacturers among its membership to obtain a change in the US regulations.

Next year’s TETRA World Congress will take place in Dubai, May 14–17, 2012.

The following reports from the Budapest congress are by Tim Guest and Richard Lambley.

• Hungary’s TETRA gets up to speed
• Push-to-talk broadband smartphone
• Superior speech in a covert earpiece
• Versatile vehicle radio
• Reaching for the sky with a dual-mode radio
• Pocket messenger for new TETRA users
• Dual-mode TETRA/GPRS messager – with GPS too
• Connecting differing radio networks across borders
• From zero to TETRA in just 30 minutes