Telent, a trusted partner in the design, build, operation, and maintenance of the UK’s critical digital infrastructure, has been selected by Handsfree Group as the services partner for installation and support of Fixed Vehicle Devices (FVD), under its Emergency Services Network (ESN) contract with the Home Office.
Under the £140m agreement, Handsfree Group will provide the Home Office with a new modern mission critical communication system across the three emergency sectors including Police, Fire, Ambulance, and other User Operators (UOs). This will replace the current Airwave Public Safety Network service used by the emergency services.
With a nationwide field force of trained, FITAS accredited and security cleared engineers, Telent will support Handsfree Group to ensure the emergency services organisations can seamlessly transition to new technological infrastructures.
“We are delighted to have been chosen by Handsfree Group as their services partner to support emergency service teams with the installation and maintenance of the R5 ESN Fixed Vehicle Device Solution,” said Barry Zielinski, Operations and Services Director at Telent. “We have valued relationships with emergency service teams across the country and are a credible and trusted partner that fleet managers can rely on as they transition to ESN as their critical communications system of choice.”
The transition to ESN will require the installation of more than 40,000 Fixed Vehicle Devices (FVD) into the UK’s emergency service vehicles. Handsfree Group’s new R5 ESN fixed vehicle solution will utilise the 4G LTE network, significantly improving the quality, consistency, and coverage on the existing Airwave system.
The ESN solution consists of an exclusive and powerful Control Unit, linking to a choice of intuitive User Interfaces which are flexible and programmable, so organisations can add functionality on-demand such as extra terminals, multiple handsets, Push-to-talk, camera view and telematics.
“A key benefit of this alliance will be the synergies created through shared expertise. Our Installation partners are the UK’s leading vehicle technology installers, providing vehicle installation services to the UK’s largest fleets,” said Matthew Johnson, CEO and Co-Founder of Handsfree Group. “Telent have worked on mission critical blue light projects across the UK and all engineers deployed, will be FITAS accredited and FCS 1362 approved and provide significant experience across a range of vehicle technology installations.”
Telent has overseen major fleet projects including FiReLink and has existing contracts supporting vehicle devices with London Ambulance Service, Scottish Ambulance Service, and multiple Fire and Rescue Services for Mobile Data Terminals (MDT) support. In addition, Telent was previously awarded the ESN Assure contract by the Home Office, providing coverage testing of the ESN including drive and walk test services for the ESN and 4G commercial networks.