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Construction of BOS digital radio network begins in Germany
The Federal Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble has given the official go-ahead for the construction of the digital radio network for German security authorities and organisations (BOS): The EADS reference platform requested by the Procurement Office of the Federal Ministry of the Interior in December last year has been completed and brought into service.
The reference platform consists of numerous linked sub-networks. This will serve as a test and validation platform and thus provide the necessary technical and practical basis for the entire network. Apart from conducting interoperability tests using different terminals from various manufacturers, the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) is also preparing tests on the secure end-to-end encryption concept. The reference platform will later become an integral component of the overall network.
"The commissioning of the reference platform marks an important milestone in the construction of the BOS digital radio network in Germany, as it has created the basis for swiftly equipping the police, rescue services, fire brigades and disaster control with a secure and failsafe radio system," said Stefan Zoller, member of the EADS Executive Committee for Defence & Security.
The contract for the BOS digital radio network was awarded by the Procurement Office of the Federal Ministry of the Interior to EADS in August 2006. Within the scope of this contract, EADS will act as prime contractor and, together with Nokia Siemens Networks, construct a nationwide TETRA digital radio network by 31 December 2010. The two companies have already successfully cooperated in the past on other international BOS digital radio projects. The digital radio network in Germany provides security authorities
and organizations with secure and failsafe communication. In all, the contract has a potential volume of up to € 1 billion for EADS.
The construction of full-coverage digital radio networks is a core competence of EADS. Working together with partner companies, to date EADS has set up or is currently setting up over 150 digital radio networks in roughly 60 countries. Among these are 33 nationwide public safety networks, 14 of which are in Europe.
