back to article Coverage concerns dog UK Emergency Services Network as boss admits scheme too ambitious

The UK Home Office has had to once again explain the ongoing Emergency Services Network farrago as part of an inquiry by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC). The project, which aims to replace blue-light services' Airwave radios with a system based on EE's 4G network, is already £3bn over budget and three years behind schedule …

  1. BebopWeBop
    Facepalm

    Business as usual

    Title says it all and I am sure that no one will be held to account (or they will point at bodies long gone) but and said he had already had "a very frank discussion" with the National Police Chiefs' Council as well as fire chiefs. made me laff - I'll bet that was a 'chart without coffee' - am sure the chair of the POAC would have loved to be a fly on the wall.

    When will these committees be given teeth? A naive outsider might conclude that the purpose of their investigation is to let off steam rather achieve anything useful.

  2. }{amis}{
    WTF?

    "the people running them – tend to optimism"

    optimism?? is that what they are calling Colombian marching powder in Whitehall these days??

    1. Semtex451
      Coffee/keyboard

      Re: "the people running them – tend to optimism"

      In this day and age, how in the name of Flaming Hell could anyone be optimistic about any Govt project?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    3 billion pounds?

    Why the fuck do they not just cut our (taxpayer) losses and keep to the system that works?

    Far be it for me to even think that the only reason they keep on trying to do this overbudget (Oh quelle suprise) and very late (even more suprise) project is because someone with a tiny dick but a big ego feels powerful when spending other peoples money.

    Cheers... Ishy

    P.S.Could anyone with a Mac tell me how to put the accent in suprise? Thank you

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 3 billion pounds?

      The existing system no longer fulfills the requirements and needs major investment. The cost to run the existing system are huge and increasing - it will be more expensive even with this current overrun to keep the old system going. It would have been better to nationalise Airwave when the system was last up for sale and taken over by Motorola.

      1. Jon 37

        Re: 3 billion pounds?

        It still fulfils its original requirements, it just doesn't fulfil the new desire for more data services (building plans, photos, etc).

        And the reason it's expensive to keep the existing system running is that a private equity company bought it so they could make a profit, and they now have a monopoly position and can charge monopoly prices. Also the government won't commit to a long extension - if we committed to (say) 25 more years on Airwave then it would be worth their while to invest in the network, but with extensions coming in 1 or 2 years at a time it's not worth them investing, so they just fix issues (which is more expensive over the longer term).

        1. Commswonk

          Re: 3 billion pounds?

          ...a private equity company bought it so they could make a profit, and they now have a monopoly position and can charge monopoly prices.

          Which private equity company would that be then? Please tell...

          Airwave is owned by Motorola, which is not a private equity company.

          I agree that Airwave is a monopoly, whoever actually owns it. It's a sad fact - but a fact nonetheless - that something like a national radio network for the blue light services is a natural monopoly, and thus once up and running the contractor is all too well placed to have a firm grip around the reproductive parts of whoever is paying for it, i.e. the UK taxpayer via HMG. As another commentard mentions somewhere in this thread it would have been far better if the first few years of such a contract were comparatively expensive so that the CapEx incurred by the provider (site acquisitions and mast building, etc are rather expensive) is paid off reasonably promptly, followed by reduced payments that better reflect the actual cost of keeping the system running (including fixed equipment replacements where necessary) plus a "fair" profit but sadly that is not the way the world works. With a contract like this the Principal effectively has to sell his soul to the Agent (the provider) just to get the contract signed, never mind the outcome actually implemented and working.

          A 25 year contract would be financially insane; it would mean long term lock - in to a technology that really would be in need of some significant changes before the contract was even halfway through, and we all know how much contract variations cost...

          It is worth noting that when (If more like) EE's ESN is up and running it too will be a monopoly contract, and by that time so much water will have flowed under the bridge that EE will be able to jack up its prices and HMG will be unable to do much about it; the only option would be to cancel and start the entire process all over again.

          1. Jon 37

            Re: 3 billion pounds?

            Sorry, my information was out of date.

            Airwave *used* to be owned by "Macquarie European Infrastructure Fund 2", that's who I was referring to.

            But I just learnt that Motorola bought Airwave in 2016.

    2. smudge

      Re: 3 billion pounds?

      P.S.Could anyone with a Mac tell me how to put the accent in suprise?

      What accent? And you're missing an 'r' from it...

      1. batfink

        Re: 3 billion pounds?

        A French one...

        1. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

          Translate

          Type "Translate" into Google, select English and French languages, type "What a surprise." Observe no accent, metaphorically related to making the statement with no emotional emphasis whatsoever. Poll for up or down votes: up to agree that you could just as well say it in English, down if you think French has je ne sais quoi and le mot juste.

    3. Tim99 Silver badge
      Gimp

      Re: 3 billion pounds?

      @Ishtiac:-

      Extended char sets - From the keyboard [Control]+[Command]+[Space] or from the Edit Menu choose "Emoji & Symbols”

      1. Richard 12 Silver badge

        Re: 3 billion pounds?

        Emoji are more important than accents now?

        Oh, Mac.

        No Alt-Grave or dead keys. I'll never understand why they insist on removing all the keys.

  4. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    "Even in my simple world, where I use things like Windows, if I used a different technical system from my children... we would not be able to communicate with each other... people would get wrong versions of documents."

    So she's had problems with different versions of Word.

    1. eldakka

      When I read that quote, my initial thought was if she is unable to communicate with users of different OSes - windows, chromebook, MacOS, Android, iOS, Linux, etc. - and use that to justify people having different versions of documents, then she needs to go back to a job she has basic competence in, like flipping burgers at McDonalds.

      That's like blaming transport problems to a meeting on different makes of cars as being the issue.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        This "she" is actually a "he"

        Title says it all

        1. eldakka

          Re: This "she" is actually a "he"

          I was replying to Doctor Syntax, and Doctor Syntax's post used "she", therefore I used that as well. I was too lazy to go peruse the source material for the correct gender because I didn't think it really mattered for the point that was being made.

      2. Richard 12 Silver badge
        Facepalm

        They were saying that even is his simple world where he's only used Windows, he knows that different versions of software don't talk to each other properly. Or at all, if it's Skype of course.

        To translate:

        "WTF Home Office, everybody knows this. How thick can can get?"

        1. eldakka

          Office and Windows are not the same thing.

          The quote I am replying to was referencing:

          1) Operating Systems (windows);

          2) communications mechanisms.

          It did not talk about document-editing software specifically.

          Therefore my point still stands, and in fact is re-inforced if this individual who is chairing the PAC that is doing an audit of an IT system did mean as you suggest, as it shows an even greater lack of competence than my original take on it.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This project is typical of many that timelines and budgets are set with a high-level plan and then as you burrow down in the detail the issues arise, and meetings have to be set up and the stakeholders are vast etc.

    Two key issues with this - a lagacy system exists which works okay for the end user as a voice network (ptt) and very limited data streams, basically an advanced digital 2way radio system. However it is very expensive to run and maintain and the data part is way too slow for modern applications.. But for a user on the ground they don't want a step back in the voice comms part, This is difficult because it is now a shared network with the general public and there is less building penetration with the frequencies.

    So you look at the problem of building out a new network to handle voice and data at high speeds that covers the land and uses frequencies that are high enough and are available for public use and also can be sold on to other countries. This limits your frequencies to a few and the obvious one are those already set aside for 4G and there also happens to be a network across the country already built.

    Therefore you can see how the costs seem low, the difficulty seems low and the timeline to rollout seems easy.

    Then the detail happens.. the Push-to-talk, the vehicle gateway, the secure network specification, the code of connections, the application verification, the extended network coverage etc all takes a lot of meetings and a lot of time.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The statement about one organisation stopping the Airwave network switching off won't happen. The cost of running airwave is substantial and to have one police force in Smershire hold it up and cost every organisation in the country a massive amount of money to roll over the country for another year will not be tolerated.

    As soon as the majority are happy to switch the rest will quickly follow. Anyone not switching will be regarded as not having the expertise to make the switch and a failure of that organisation.

    1. Commswonk

      The cost of running airwave is substantial

      Undoubtedly true, but I strongly suspect that by the time the ESN is functional and providing what the end users actually require the cost differential won't be anything like what was originally envisaged.

      On top of which the costs incurred by the end users in converting from one system to the other are likely to be significant, as will be the disruption to "normal service" while everything (e.g. control rooms and vehicles) is converted. It is also highly likely that training costs will be a bit eye - watering as well.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        That doesn't matter. You can either pay for two systems or one. The way public sector finances work the costs for individual organisation s to keep Airwave going is already biting hard.

        The only way out is to imement ESN and transfer all 999 services over as soon as practical.

  7. Simon Rockman

    The whole ESN is supposed to be release 12. Which is daft because release 12 doesn't support PTT, that's in release 13, but then Motorola own Kodiak a proprietary solution which it has introduced to bridge the gap. It also ensures that whatever devices are bought Motorola makes money. Part of the rationale for the ESN was an open market for devices. The whole project is a mess.

  8. Commswonk

    Oh FFS...

    Rutnam said: "One of the characteristics of programmes is that they – and the people running them – tend to optimism.

    Then they are stupid; plain and simple stupid. As anyone with an engineering / technical background knows all too well there is one correct working outcome and multiple routes to failure. That one outcome will only be attained if those in the chain are fully aware of all the things that can go wrong and are more or less permanently on the lookout for them, ready to work on solutions as and when the need arises.

    It makes me wonder if they have even heard of Risk Registers; they certainly don't seem to have recognised that there might just be things they don't know they don't know. (Thank you Donald Rumsfeld)

    What is really depressing is that EE seem to have fallen into an identical trap, and EE is supposed to be the technical authority on this, but having said that I still can't decide whether I am actually surprised or not. I wonder if this project was fronted for EE by marketing or engineering; at the moment it looks more like the former. EE thoroughly deserves some serious reputational damage for this; the Home Office's reputation is probably beyond further damage anyway.

    Grr...

    1. JimC

      Re: Oh FFS...

      No, they are not stupid, au contraire, they are cultivating a "can do" attitude as is vital for success in any large organisation these days. You might think that these organisations would be better focussing on people with can do ability rather than can do attitude, but I couldn't possibly comment.

  9. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    Critical infrastructure ?

    Didn't Motorola get sold to those foreign chaps in China?

    Are these different evil commie Chinese threats to national security than the ones at Huawei ?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Trollface

      Motorolas

      Didn't Motorola get sold to those foreign chaps in China?

      Are these different evil commie Chinese threats to national security than the ones at Huawei ?

      You are thinking of Motorola Mobility, Motorola's consumer devices arm, which was sold off to Google and then on to Lenovo. The company owning Airwave and working on its replacement (weird, that) is Motorola Solutions. It is an American company, headquartered in Chicago, IL.

      Whether that is a bigger or lesser cause for concern, compared to a Chinese company being involved, is for you to decide. With any luck, EE will source the equipment on its side from Huawei or ZTE - so that both big brothers could keep an eye on things.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Red Button

    I want to see tests of the red button done, to see if it actually works. Voice is needed, and data is nice, but that red button is essential to have. If I bang that button and nobody comes I'm likely going to be very upset, and probably badly injured.

    1. Commswonk

      Re: Red Button

      Not just the button itself, but all the attendant functions such as x seconds talking without the PTT being required, ambient listening and so on.

      I also wonder if the HO in its infinite wisdom specified that batteries have to be user changeable; there was a photo on El Reg some months ago with a red (well, orange actually) button which I think was claimed to be a Samsung offering of sorts but it looked horribly like a smartphone, and we know how easy it is to change batteries on those...

      And while I'm at it has a vehicle set been designed yet? And will it act as a Gateway should the need arise? I have been reliably informed that no sort of Direct Mode is available, which sort of buggers up Gateway operation.

      1. Martin an gof Silver badge
        WTF?

        Re: Red Button

        I have been reliably informed that no sort of Direct Mode is available, which sort of buggers up Gateway operation

        That's one of the thing that has confused me about the push for the new system. Bearing in mind that I have no connection at all with any of the emergency services - other than living next door to a police dog handler - my memory of the USPs for Airwave were that it was more secure than the old FM systems, was addressable and that it offered "peer to peer" facilities (I presume this is what you mean by Gateway operation?) which would be very handy in areas of poor coverage. I think there was some gnashing of teeth about radios not working properly underground during the Kings Cross fire. Other than that it operated very much like an old-fashioned radio. Push to Talk seems to be a fundamental requirement!

        Yet none of these things seemed to be mentioned when people started talking about the next generation system. The only thing that seemed to concern them was the ability to include high speed data. If commentards here are to be believed, PTT was way down the list and still doesn't work properly!

        And I don't see why it is so expensive to keep an existing system going - where the vast majority of capital costs have already been paid. I understand there may be an issue procuring new equipment if there isn't a global market, but it has to be cheaper than scrapping it and installing new? Couldn't you separate the systems? Keep a battle-hardened (mainly) voice-oriented real-time system and equip police with, oh, I dunno, ruggedised smartphones or tablets for the data stuff?

        M.

        1. Commswonk

          Re: Red Button

          ...and that it (Airwave) offered "peer to peer" facilities (I presume this is what you mean by Gateway operation?) which would be very handy in areas of poor coverage.

          Some understandable confusion in there. (Not a criticism, BTW.) "Peer to Peer" is more correctly called Point to Point (P2P) but it still needs the "network" to operate; it enables an individual user to commuicate with another individual user but without involving anyone / everyone else within a Talkgroup. (The downside is that both users become incommunicado from whatever Talkgroup they were previously sitting on.) By definition a Talkgroup operates in Trunk Mode Operation, TMO.

          I'll get to "Gateway" via Direct Mode Operation, DMO. DMO can be used between Terminals (a/k/a portable or vehicle radios) in the event of a network failure or in an area of very poor coverage; in this mode they behave very much like conventional radios, and "very much like" includes a significantly reduced range. It is very much a fall - back operation, and would not be anyone's first choice!

          Gateway gets complicated. It can be used in areas where network signal strengths are simply not good enough for a portable terminal to function satisfactorily because of its suboptimal aerial* and modest transmitter power, but are good enough for a vehicle radio to operate because of its (hopefully!) better aerial and more powerful transmitter. In this case it is possible to set up a configuration in which the vehicle radio acts as a "repeater" between the network and the portable; the vehicle radio operates primarily in Trunk Mode, with the link between it and the portable terminal operating in Direct Mode. The vehicle terminal thus acts as a Gateway between the portable terminal and the wider network.

          I think there was some gnashing of teeth about radios not working properly underground during the Kings Cross fire.

          There were a lot of problems, but they did not (would still not) originate from anything mentioned so far. Underground stations are (by definition) underground and poor radio performance in tunnels (which for all practical purposes includes not just the railway tunnels but all the pedestrain passageways and platforms) is a known problem and has been more or less forever. The solution is to install (at considerable cost) "continuous" underground aerials called leaky feeders with either a proper base station at the end of them or a cell enhancer which piggy backs coverage from the nearest serving external cell / base station. The result is that radio users are never more than a few feet from a cable ("aerial") that provides the connection they need. No leaky feeder, no coverage.

          Returning briefly to Trunk Mode, Direct Mode, & Gateway, changing between them requires some button pushing and getting it right necessitates remembering what was taught in training. If not done regularly training fade inevitably takes its toll. I've been retired a few years now but getting Gateway right was not straightforward and the outcome not entirely satisfactory; hopefully things have been made easier now, but who knows..?

          For the avoidance of doubt; I am not and never have been a Police Officer, but I spent a few years as a civvy in a Police Force working on, er, radio systems both old and new.

          * Another thought... I hope Samsung's radios do / will actually have visible external aerials and aren't going to rely on a bit of PCB track inside a shiny case. That takes "suboptimal" to an even lower level. :(

  11. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    "boss admits scheme too ambitious"

    It took time but he got there eventually.

  12. Starace
    Alert

    Never going to work

    Not a surprise to see lots of anon supportive AstroTurf popping up on this one. El Reg should really bin the anon option as it just attracts the turf layers.

    Anyway everyone knew this would never work - commercial commodity consumer systems are never going to work in a way adequate to completely replace a dedicated radio comms system.

    The most you can hope for is to do what pretty much everyone does already; use the shiny features of the cheap system where you can, but rely on the proper one where it really matters.

    Just like consumer electronics can often work in a lot of nasty conditions but only the proper drop tested IP68 blah blah expensive ones can be expected to.

    1. Commswonk

      Re: Never going to work

      Not a surprise to see lots of anon supportive AstroTurf popping up on this one. El Reg should really bin the anon option as it just attracts the turf layers.

      While I sympathise with that opinion I don't actually agree with it. I know ACs' posts can be on occasions frustrating, on others they really do add to the discussion. There don't appear to be many contributors (AC or otherwise) supportive of the ESN plan as it stands, and your post rather suggests that there are.

      Anyway everyone knew this would never work - commercial commodity consumer systems are never going to work in a way adequate to completely replace a dedicated radio comms system.

      Everyone except the Home Office and EE, that is. It would be interesting to know the views of the National Police Chiefs' Council and those closer to the sharp end. Perhaps - just perhaps - they are some of the ACs. :)

    2. Hollerithevo

      Re: Never going to work

      Whereas 'Starace' can be Googled to reveal your full name, address, and place of work.

  13. StuntMisanthrope

    What do you call a duck in a microwave.

    There's a million pounds of funding available in North Yorkshire for rural telecommunications, none of the operators can be bothered though. #billwithers

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: What do you call a duck in a microwave.

      All you have to do is implement it without putting up any masts or letting those evil radiations near anyone's school

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