
rigorous government procurement procedures
deciding whose turn it is to take a large-scale project massively over budget and over schedule
IBM has secured a deal with the UK Home Office to supply user services for the troubled Emergency Service Network (ESN) upgrade, providing voice and data communications after Motorola withdrew from the project. In a contract award notice released this week, the government department said IBM was awarded £1.362 billion ( …
Having spend the last 30 years working on mobile comms, this is an example of a government decision made by people who have no engineering knowledge, and a disdain for those who do.
They have taken a dedicated system, designed for reliability, specific function, and operating at a low frequency (which gives it wide range, good building penetration and requires a small number of base-stations), and are attempting to replace it with a "service" piggybacked on a commercial high frequency systems (so inherently poorer coverage, worse service indoors, and needing a massive number of base-stations to achieve the required universal coverage).
The underlying commercial infrastructure is understandably designed and optimized to maximize operator return on their spectrum and hardware investment _not_ emergency service availability. As such it is fundamentally incompatible with the desired operational characteristics of the emergency comms service.
The only way to make it work is by massively incentivizing the commercial operators to provide 100% cell coverage on their networks, and by overruling all the planning constraints which mean cell towers get rejected. Arguably 100% commercial cell coverage is a useful thing in its own right, but it would require a huge level of investment which makes no commercial sense, and which the government has never been willing to fund.
This.
But also, the government keep trotting out "PTT services" as though this was something normal and everyday on cellular services.
It Isn't.
There are no fully working reliable examples of PTT operation over a commercial cellular network anywhere.
Motorola did have a system, but they couldn't get it to work properly, which is part of the reason this contract has rumbled on so long.
Indeed. The PTT requirement changes the cell/phone 'tracking' system from the very low bandwidth regular update ping* into a permanent higher bandwidth open channel. This is a case where a 95% fit is no good when the other 5% is the killer application requirement!
The Government really needs to give up and just admit that replacing the Motorola bespoke emergency system requires another bespoke system more akin to military communications even if this ends up with a dedicated cell network.
*needed to immediately route incoming calls to the correct cell instead of spamming the entire network looking for 'fred' - that doesn't scale well with 10s of millions of handsets.
Perhaps the government needs to stop chasing "digital" and just take a cold hard look at their requirements and technology capabilities available. Perhaps they are not capable or driven by seniors whose bread is buttered elsewhere? Do the politicians have a say? Because they will go with whatever makes them look good for the next 5 minutes.
My biggest worry as they seem to do their best to collapse everything is what's the backup when it fails? Do they have protocols for working without whatever digital service they come to rely on? Maybe not as efficient but there should be a practiced non-tech solution. Pigeons maybe ;-)
Maybe, just maybe there is nothing wrong with the current system.
If I have remembered correctly the main driver is that the Government of the day wanted the radio spectrum to auction. All the funky stuff was a bolt on to make it sound sexy and try and sell it.
"There are no fully working reliable examples of PTT operation over a commercial cellular network anywhere."
Does iDEN not count?
Nextel provided PTT via iDEN for years in USA until after they merged with Sprint, and there were some other iDEN deployments (not sure whether with PTT) elsewhere in the world. iDEN was, by coincidence, developed by Motorola.
"As far as I know, IDEN is not compatible with 3G or 4G networks."
I never claimed it was in my earlier comment, I was responding to where you said:
"There are no fully working reliable examples of PTT operation over a commercial cellular network anywhere."
iDEN was in service as a commercial cellular network at Nextel for at least a couple of decades (until it was decomissioned some time after the Nextel/Sprint merger) and therefore met the criteria of a "fully working reliable example of PTT operation over a commercial cellular network anywhere".
Now you've either moved the goalposts to "over a commercial 3G/4G cellular network" or else your original comment was imprecisely worded.
UK Emergency Services Network is supposed to be based on the existing 4G infrastructure provided by EE.
And no doubt the new ESN service will be announced as operational about 2 days before EE announces that it's shutting down its 4G service in favour of a new 5G/6G one.
Nah, all IBM will do is employ a load of contractors to do the work. Problem solved, they now know all there is to know about setting up a bespoke radio system with demanding requirements.
It may even be the same people who are currently working on this for Motorola.
What could possibly go wrong???????????
That's a bit of a low hanging fruit to bark at.
They might not be directly soldering chips and capacitors on bespoke radio systems, but are quite involved in the development of the NG911 infrastructure in North America. Would surprise me if at least part of that technology doesn't make it to this here project.
I got interviewed last year at the PSAC II (The Cube) building (didn't get it :) ), and nothing inside was speaking Motorola or Radio. It was all servers and operators.
So, what's the backup for when a solar flair, EMP event or sabotage, which will happen at some point, knocks out all the technology?
And it doesn't just apply to this - the world is now in a position that any event that knocks out "technology" will lead to huge loss of life (no water, food distribution, access to records/documentation/knowledge).
I think the pigeons will be very confused for a few mins before getting back to normal and I've no idea how they'll handle this in flight?
As for the power issue, write this into the license terms 'Will operate off mains power for a minimum of 24 hours' at whatever minimum capacity is required.
Cheap or Resilient - pick one.
In O2's case, it just needs an expired certificate to take the network offline for 2 days...... No flares required.
I wouldn't have thought that mobile radio comms is IBM's area of expertise, but, heck, what do I know, after 40-ish years in the radiocomms business. Maybe they want to fit every police car with a system360.
And in reply to earlier post, yes, Airwave was maintained by a fairly dedicated workforce, who could go to extra lengths to pull out the stops during a crisis event. But, relying on a public network, maintained at minimum cost, with little backup.or resilience...... What could go wrong?
As Alister mentions this sort of service hasn't been proven over 4G. The article does technically imply it should also cover areas not conventionally reachable by 4G, the question is how?
Things *should* be better now, but as we know from the Lancaster floods mobile comms can't be relied on in the event of a natural disaster
Yes I'd go with non 4G protocols as a serious option from an engineering viewpoint. How much has technology changed during the last decade while we all waited for nothing to appear.
Successive governments eyeing the cash from 3/4/5G spectrum auctions were not inclined to add anything about making the thing work in an emergency, that would reduce the cash bids.
What is coverage ???
I cannot use mobiles comms in my home reliably at all.
I need to hang out of an upstairs window to get a signal to make a call.
I am in a town with a 60K+ population that is surrounded by motorways & major A roads.
The local cell towers are overloaded and work if I am within a mile of them but my corner of the town which has NO hills/valleys or structural impediments to a 3/4/5G signal is 'Not Spot Central'.
Basing a national Emergency system on this same technology is madness ... but what is new ... keep trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result !!!
:)
Only until midday on the 20th. After that? No one apart from Putin and Xi are friends with Trump V2.0 (outside the MAGA faithful)
His approval rating in the US is a miserly 41%. Trump 1.0 never managed more than 50%.
It will only be a matter of time before Trump talks about buying the UK (or just Scotland and turning it into one big Golf Course for his exclusive use).
We (the rest of the world) will be impacted by his tariffs. Eggs will go up in price.
As the old saying goes "Never grow by acquisition".
Acquisition is a risky strategy, all too often companies end up with a pig in a poke.
Companies think when they are buying customers they are buying profit... they're not.
They think that buying a profitable company it will make them profitable... it won't.
They think the customers will be pleased to switch product line ... they won't be, and they'll blame the supplier.
They is an argument for a "synergy" to integrate with other offerings and getting into the market rapidly.... integration is tough and slow
They think the big company will provide the level of investment necessary to expand - it won't.
EBITDA isn't in the GAAP - for a good reason.
How much is a loss making company worth? Are you blitz scaling? are you? are you really?
"Really its a merger"... Check out the illustration for The Economist article "The Trouble with Mergers"
Asking the seller questions is not "due diligence".
Do a better job than your competitors at a price your customers find sustainable, at a profit and then like Sun Tzu settle down by the river... "If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by."
Who is up for retirement in a couple of years and suddenly shows up on the IBM payroll?
Hope the contracts has some stiff penalties for missed targets, poor performance and lack of system coverage.
Oh hang on, its UKGov normal job to hand over taxpayer money for failures and scandals to private companies for bailouts.
"Hope the contracts has some stiff penalties for missed targets, poor performance and lack of system coverage."
UKGov contracts don't have penalties for failures ... if something goes wrong it is monitored for a number of years THEN the vendor is given the opportunity to explain the issues and renegotiate the contract for MUCH MUCH more money as the job is more difficult than they thought.
UKGov at this point is so grateful for the vendor giving them this NEW information and promptly signs the new contract with NO changes.
Rinse, repeat until a new Govt is voted in, then rinse, repeat or cancel.
This is how our country grows/shrinks(!!!???) BUT the vendors ALWAYS grow even richer !!!
Meanwhile, the civil service LEARNS nothing, as they know all and cannot be taught anything, and repeats this decade after decade until retiring with a nice Pension & honours for services to the country.
SORRY if I sound despairing of our Govts BUT this has been the pattern for at least 50 years, nothing ever changes apart from the promises made and the AMOUNT of disappointment felt !!!
:)
There are many things that you can criticise IBM for but they are one of the more succesful services companies, I mean successful in terms of client satisfaction. Like many corporations they have a lot of good people and a lot of not so good and as long as the good ones have the balance of power they'll do well.
Problem is that they used to be the MOST successful services companies !!!
At best they are GOOD enough but the criteria for the 'enough' needs some investigation !!!
IBM will survive short term BUT long term is a much more difficult question to answer when your country/company/populace relies on them for its survival !!!
:)
ESN seems like a colossal waste of money, just make some legislation to require all phone companies to make a special SIM that works across all networks and has priority over standard users. It's much easier and cheaper to make it the carriers problem.
And for backup just keep the old system and/or train users how to use regular walkie talkies.
Failing that, why not wait a few years to see what other countries do with their systems and copy them.
Biggest problem is coverage of mobile networks is where the most people live. Anywhere out in the sticks the coverage is minimal to zero. No good for anything. But then PTT over Iridium satellite phone has been available for some years now and works a treat. PS I don’t work for them!
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The change has always been based on a desperate need for video. Actual users rarely want anything except reliable voice and location tracking. It is fairly easy to make a secure gateway from TETRA through the public 4/5G network for broadband if necessary. This is already demonstrated out here in Malaysia.
The spectrum occupied by Airwave is not very much.
The current Airwave TETRA based system is capable of point to point radio comms should the main network become unavailable.
The replacement 4G based system does not have that facility - no network, no comms.
Go out of coverage, you're on your own.
Emergency Services is, by its very nature, not always going to be in a controlled "everything works" environment.
Just looking at the fires in Los Angeles where Musk has put StarLink wagons in there to provide a mobile telephony uplink illustrates how susceptible to disruption civilian comms systems can be.
The whole concept of ESN was flawed from day one and illustrates the inability of those in government IT procurement to be trusted with anything more sophisticated than a torch.
This stupidity has been going on for a decade now and we'll be having the same discussion in 2033.
Government IT is at the mercy of an army of external consulants as most of this will be out of their depth. The consultants (themsleves not necessarily up to date) then see more revenue in proposing the impractical or the unwanted. Not one will say - look, should we not scale this down. A job for life.
Given the huge number of boffins in IBM and their participating in loads of standards groups. why not use this as an excellent oportunity to improve iDen and UPDATE it to be compatible on today's networks? iDen has worked almost flawlessly in a number of countries around the world, unless NIH is the operating principle here!?!?!!!
Or is that outside the scope of profit making at Itsy Bitsy Minds
'The contract was first tendered in May 2023 at £895 million (excluding VAT) over the same period, which suggests the price has increased by £467 million. A Home Office spokesperson explained that the contract value advertised in May 2023 was the Home Office's estimate.....'
Under-bugeting (usually plucked from thin-air in any case) is a common ploy to just get past the Treasury first-hurdle and no one is qualified to question this.
There seems to be a level of fear within the Home Office to manage and operate a Gov owned system, and a preference to outsource this. Other countries tend to operate and own their own emergency services system, whether it is TETRA or P25 with a separate LTE provision. One would have thought that they would have learnt their lesson with Airwave where the costs escalated rapidly. Additionally, the only ones who benefit financially from this project are the 'consultants' who earn massive amounts for generally poor advice. ESN has been an absolute sham project, poorly scoped and atrociously managed since its initial concept between 2011 and 2014.