In the UK, public safety network operator Airwave completed a major phase of its nationwide TETRA rollout to the British Red Cross, the humanitarian relief charity, in time for a visit by the Pope to Glasgow during September.

For the first time, the British Red Cross was able to enjoy complete radio coverage across a large geographical area without loss of voice quality. The occasion also demonstrated that the Airwave service can provide full nationwide interoperability for the British Red Cross, offering the flexibility it needs to handle large-scale events wherever they may occur in Britain.

With the aid of the Airwave service, the ‘silver command’ team of the British Red Cross was able to manage efficiently all vehicles, staff and welfare centres involved in providing first aid services to 100?000 people within a 65?km radius, culminating in an open-air Mass at Bellahouston Park.

To test regional interoperability and the scalability of the Airwave network to cope with large-scale events, additional radios were brought to Glasgow from a pilot deployment in the south-west of England. 

“By bringing forward the network deployment in Glasgow in time for the papal visit, Airwave allowed us to gain a good understanding of how its service performs during large-scale operations”, commented Brian Everard, implementation adviser at the British Red Cross. “The network operated perfectly on the day and demonstrated the benefits we look forward to enjoying once the nationwide rollout is complete: interoperability, scalability, ease of use and, above all, operational efficiency.”