The city of Boulder, Colorado, awarded ESChat a contract to provide broadband push-to-talk (PTT) service, including Project 25 (P25) Inter RF Subsystem Interface (ISSI) interoperability with the city’s P25 network. The order includes ESChat servers that will be hosted at the city’s facilities and collocated with the P25 public-safety system.

The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) TR-8.5 engineering committee on signaling and data transmission issued a call for interest on two documents in the Project 25 (P25) standards suite.

Motorola Solutions is launching WAVE PTX Government in Australia, a push-to-talk (PTT) service that includes Critical Connect, a feature that connects multiple public-safety agencies to secure, real-time voice and data communications.

The FCC modified the temporary freeze on the acceptance of certain applications related to LMR services operating in the 896 – 901/935 – 940 MHz band following a request from pdvWireless, doing business as Anterix. The commission said the freeze will provide greater flexibility for 900 MHz band incumbents to relocate out of the broadband segment that the commission has proposed in a pending rulemaking proceeding.

Several public-safety professionals and jurisdictions, along with commercial carriers, said the FCC should require interoperability between the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) and other Long Term Evolution (LTE) carriers and LMR networks, while FirstNet and its contractor AT&T said third-party interoperability is not outlined in the legislation that created FirstNet.

Swedish Police finalized two framework agreements with Invisio for communications equipment with active hearing protection. The agreements contain no guarantees for volumes and the call-offs will be as needed, but Invisio estimates that it includes thousands of police officers and the potential value of the agreements, over their lifetimes, to be between 50 million and 75 million krona (US$5 million to US$7.5 million).

The Swedish Sea Rescue Society (SSRS) chose Sepura partner Swedish Radio Supply to supply a combination of Sepura TETRA radios including hand-portable and mobile terminals.

The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau launched a new interference complaint intake portal for public-safety and enterprise service providers.

A new report from IHS Markit Technology said there is steady growth across sectors for TETRA terminals. The increase in demand is led by the industrial user vertical, where 8% increase in compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is predicted to 2023. Other markets with more than 5% anticipated growth include transport and utilities, while the public-safety market is predicted to grow its TETRA installed base by more than 4% in the 12 months to December 2020.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tested four different radio communications accessories used with personal protective equipment (PPE) by first responders.