back to article IBM swoops in to rescue UK Emergency Services Network after Motorola shown the door

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 ( …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    rigorous government procurement procedures

    deciding whose turn it is to take a large-scale project massively over budget and over schedule

    1. Eclectic Man Silver badge

      See an article on that obscure web site 'The Register'

      Indeed, one only needs to read https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/16/nao_uk_government_tech/ about a government report specifically stating that UK Government Tech procurement is sadly lacking in, well, pretty much everything.

    2. Colintd

      Fundamental technical issues

      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.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Fundamental technical issues

        As EE are the infra provider, they might as well have just handed the whole deal over to BT … and completely avoided the inclusion of IBM. At least BT have a track record of sorts in comms and mobile.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Government procurement and management of services never seems to improve. Is job security at the top of the civil service too secure?

  2. Like a badger

    WTF do IBM know about emergency services radio?

    About one-sided contracts to milk the taxpayer, yes, IBM know lots. But about setting up a bespoke radio system with demanding requirements?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Sorry, you want to *use* this to be used in an emergency

      We *provide* this for 1.36bn. To *use* it you need to pay more

    2. Alister

      Re: WTF do IBM know about emergency services radio?

      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.

      1. Wellyboot Silver badge

        Re: WTF do IBM know about emergency services radio?

        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.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: WTF do IBM know about emergency services radio?

          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 ;-)

        2. UnknownUnknown

          Re: WTF do IBM know about emergency services radio?

          https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/upgrading-british-armys-tactical-communications-what-next

          Which is being done separately at more vast cost….

      2. hoola Silver badge

        Re: WTF do IBM know about emergency services radio?

        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.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: WTF do IBM know about emergency services radio?

        "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.

        1. Alister

          Re: WTF do IBM know about emergency services radio?

          As far as I know, IDEN is not compatible with 3G or 4G networks.

          UK Emergency Services Network is supposed to be based on the existing 4G infrastructure provided by EE.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: WTF do IBM know about emergency services radio?

            "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.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: WTF do IBM know about emergency services radio?

            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.

    3. hoola Silver badge

      Re: WTF do IBM know about emergency services radio?

      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???????????

      1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

        Re: WTF do IBM know about emergency services radio?

        No doubt priority will be given to bodyshopping from their Indian outfit as that allows for more profit. A nice little gravy train

        1. ecofeco Silver badge

          Re: WTF do IBM know about emergency services radio?

          I've work for IBM.

          Every word is the truth. No need to speculate.

    4. goblinski

      Re: WTF do IBM know about emergency services radio?

      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.

  3. Mishak Silver badge

    Solar / EMP events

    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).

    1. Alister

      Re: Solar / EMP events

      There isn't one. I wonder if carrier pigeons will get their navigation scrambled by EMP?

      But more importantly, most commercial cellular mast sites do not have any power backup at all, at least the Airwave sites mostly have either battery backup or generators.

      1. Wellyboot Silver badge

        Re: Solar / EMP events

        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.

      2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Solar / EMP events

        > I wonder if carrier pigeons will get their navigation scrambled by EMP?

        Obviously we fit the pigeons with little tinfoil hats

        1. David Hicklin Silver badge

          Re: Solar / EMP events

          > Obviously we fit the pigeons with little tinfoil hats

          But wouldn’t that scramble their inbuilt magnetic compasses ?

          1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

            Re: Solar / EMP events

            No it's very difficult to shield against real magnetic fields.

            While blocking imaginary 5g mind control rays is possible with even the thinnest tinfoil

    2. Yet Another Hierachial Anonynmous Coward

      Re: Solar / EMP events

      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?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not Fujitsu...

    At least it's not Fujitsu. Nor Serco, nor Accemture, nor Crapita, nor..........

  5. BinkyTheMagicPaperclip Silver badge

    What about non 4G?

    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

    1. Wellyboot Silver badge

      Re: What about non 4G?

      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.

    2. Just an old bloke

      Re: What about non 4G?

      If they’re using 4G, God knows how they’ll cope in deepest Essex, EE has more dead spots than coverage once out of the towns.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: What about non 4G?

        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 !!!

        :)

  6. VoiceOfTruth

    National security implications

    What are the national security implications here? Will any data be transferred to the USA for processing (siloing)?

    Will any equipment used be audited for backdoors and/or gaping security holes?

    1. seven of five Silver badge

      Re: National security implications

      Not necessary, the US are our friends.

      1. A Non e-mouse Silver badge
        Joke

        Re: National security implications

        You forgot the joke icon --->

        1. seven of five Silver badge

          Re: National security implications

          Should have, obviously.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: the US are our friends.

        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.

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          Re: the US are our friends.

          I thought the Great Leader had demanded that Charles overthrows the government ?

          Obviously a patriotic royalist who wants to roll back their little tantrum in the 1770s

        2. John 110
          Joke

          Re: the US are our friends.

          "...or just Scotland and turning it into one big Golf Course..."

          Not JUST a Golf Course. It would make a handy dandy missile platform/submarine base...

          1. David Hicklin Silver badge

            Re: the US are our friends.

            " It would make a handy dandy missile platform/submarine base..."

            well the UK was described as the unsinkable aircraft carrier for the US forces in Europe

    2. Roland6 Silver badge

      Re: National security implications

      Given how extensively compromised the US networks seem to be, from other ElReg reports, you can be sure the data and network will be fully accessible to Chinese hackers…

    3. werdsmith Silver badge

      Re: National security implications

      What are the national security implications here? Will any data be transferred to the USA for processing (siloing)?

      Because the contract is transferring from one US corporation to another?

  7. Springsmith
    Terminator

    Never grow by acquisition

    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."

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Never grow by acquisition

      That's just crazy commie talk!! Take your sensible commie business talk elsewhere sir! I said, good day to you sir!

      /s in case needed.

  8. Tubz Silver badge

    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.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Hope ??? none left ... it was used up by the LAST govt !!! [It is ALWAYS the 'last' Govt !!!]

      "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 !!!

      :)

  9. Tubz Silver badge

    Wonder if IBM asking Musk for a hand in deploying a few dozen sats around the UK for coverage?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Or perhaps some I(c)BM?

  10. quite_remarkable

    But isn't IBM's services capability as was now the separate Kyndryl ? How can they take this forward ? Just subcontract everything ?

    1. Wellyboot Silver badge

      They'll subcontract it back to Motorola, who else knows how it works...

  11. goblinski

    Oh-one-one-eight, nine-nine-nine, eight-eight-one-nine-niiiiine, nine-one-one-nine, seven-two-fiiiiiive...THREE !!!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Why is it on fire?

      <looks at contract>

      Oh, its maintained by IBM....

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        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.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          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 !!!

          :)

  12. saltycupcakes

    But why?

    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.

    1. FirstTangoInParis Silver badge

      Re: But why?

      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!

  13. This post has been deleted by its author

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Video nonsense

    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.

  15. Gwydion

    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.

    1. Acrimonius

      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.

  16. s. pam
    Holmes

    why not update/re-tool iDen --> 2.0/3.0/4.0

    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

  17. Acrimonius

    Alway underestimate budget needed

    '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.

  18. Vadiba

    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.

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