Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Steve Ferguson: Next Generation Critical Communications Director on the revamping of emergency service communication

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Steve Ferguson: Next Generation Critical Communications Director on the revamping of emergency service communication · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A new radio network has been set up for our
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: emergency services. It'll see police, fire and ambulance all move
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: to the same digital system for the first time, replacing
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the aging and sometimes failing analog system. It follows a
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: trial in Canterbury. Steve Ferguson is the director of Next
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Generation Critical Communications and he's with me this morning, kidday Steve.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Right, how are you good?
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Thank you? What will this actually change for our first responders?
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Will will they be able to talk to each other
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: through this system?
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, believer. The technology we've got today has done a
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: great job over thirty years, but it's old and they
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: cannot communicate together in an emergency situation. They can't coordinate responses.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: So you've got police via emergency had to hono, Sir
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: John Wellington free. They cannot communicate across the network together.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: This will give them that opportunity. But more than that,
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: it's digitized, as you said in your intro there and
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: today the public can listen into their comms and so
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: can the bad guys. So it creates all sorts of
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: challenges for first responders trying to save key life.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Well, so, because I know that there's some journalists who
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: like to listen in and find out where you know,
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: where the drama is happening. Will they not be able
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: to do that either? Is it totally encrypted?
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, the news for first responders and keywisers, it is
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: totally encrypted. We're dealing with people's lives, we're dealing with
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: personal situations, and it's important that we get the first
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: responders pools so they can communicate well and simply an easily.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Today's net we won't do that. So no, going forward,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: it will be encrypted and it will give the first
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: responsibility to communicate much more easily. Today because of the
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: situation we have with this whole technology, they've got to
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: get quite innovative of how to communicate and not signal
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: to people that shouldn't be listening as to what they're doing.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Using lots of codes and stuff like that. How many
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: radios do you actually do you actually need to replace.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Well, we're replacing the whole network, Ryan, We're replacing five
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: hundred radio towers and somewhere in the order of fifteen
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: thousand units that for first responders. We've already this is
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: part of a complementary of services. So we've already rolled
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: out roaming service on cellulars for first responders. Last year,
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: a world first, actually were teed up the two mobile
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: network operators and we've rolled out fifteen thousand some cards
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: for the first responses. They con communicate across that network,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: so we're doing the same with the radio networks.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Fascinating stuff, Steve, Thank you for that. Steve Ferguson, Director
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: of Next Generation Critical Communications. It does seem strange, doesn't it.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: We're not strange, but a little antiquated that our ambulance officers,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: our police officers, our fire service can't actually talk to
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: each other when they are coordinating on an emergency. Thankfully
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: that will be coming to an end.
• 2:52
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• 2:55
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• 2:56
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• 2:59
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