Buses and control rooms across the West Midlands are set to receive transformational communications upgrades over the next 12 months, as Telent has been awarded a contract by National Express West Midlands (NXWM) to implement upgraded Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) communications and services to more than 1,500 buses in the region.
The major contract will cover nine bus depots, including all routes across the West Midlands conurbation. The new communication solution includes the phased replacement of the existing analogue technology and core communications infrastructure currently used in the vehicles, control rooms and associated radio base station sites. Upgrading to a DMR Tier III system will provide NXWM with digital speech clarity and system resilience. It will also deliver enhanced features and the capability to add increased functionality to meet business needs.
The long-term contract, valued at an estimated £14 million GBP will be provided as a managed services agreement. The migration will be fully managed and delivered by Telent and includes GPS positional tracking, emergency call prioritisation, status messaging, ticket machine integration, dynamic group call allocation and smartphone PTT application.