Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) is a European standard for a trunked radio system, a professional mobile radio and two-way transceiver specification. TETRA was specifically designed for use by government agencies, emergency services, (police forces, fire departments, ambulance) for public safety networks, rail transport staff for train radios, transport services and the military.

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In Australia, TETRA digital radio systems have been predominantly adopted by the mining and oil/gas operators due to it's open standard, highly scalable, secure, intelligent and flexible radio solution. 

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Some of the benefits that TETRA provides include:

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• Because it’s a global open standard, TETRA allows (interoperability) different brands of subscribers to operate on the one network.

• The much lower frequency used gives longer range, which in turn permits very high levels of geographic coverage with a smaller number of transmitters, thus cutting infrastructure costs.

• The core technologies used in the TETRA standard – such as Digital, Trunking and Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) – provide a number of inherent advantages and benefits, including voice quality, RF coverage, data services and security.

• Provides for efficient spectrum usage and via its digital technology, provides clear, low-noise voice and allows multiple talk-groups to operate large numbers of radios on just a few frequency channels.

• In the absence of a network, mobiles/portables can use 'direct mode' whereby they share channels directly (walkie-talkie mode).

• Latest version of standard supports 115.2 kbit/s in 25 kHz or up to 691.2 kbit/s in an expanded 150 kHz channel, ostensibly faster than what competing technologies such as DMR, dPMR, and P25 are capable of.

  

Typical TETRA coverage applications applicable to the mining and energy sector include:

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• Exploration areas at mining sites; e.g. drilling, maintenance and supervision personnel

• Remote facilities such as - fuel dumps or water pumps

• Fleet Management: Manage your fleet effectively and automate updates

• Emergency units and maintenance teams

• Man Down -can be set to send a notification to the controller if the user falls or is inactive

• Biometric data - Monitor vital data such as heart rate

• Text messages - Send a canned message at one touch

• Email - Send an email directly to the radio

• Query - Search for the information you need in the field

• Location Tracking - Monitor asset and team locations in real time with integrated GPS