Snapshot Survey

October 01, 2007

By Lindsay A. Gross

During the course of 2007, RadioResource International has reported on the different types of mobile communications network technologies used by our readers in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and the Asia/Pacific region. In this installment, we highlight Europe. And similar to the rest of the respondents across the world, nearly half of European respondents use a combination of analog and digital technology, with more respondents using only digital (30.9 percent) than only analog networks (21 percent).

A majority of respondents use both trunked and conventional technologies (44.4 percent), with 30.9 percent using only trunked and 24.7 percent using only conventional networks.

Similar to the previous region reports, the mobile radio protocol most commonly used by respondents in Europe is TETRA (56.8 percent.) Europe, however, was the only region where more than half of respondents use the technology; 38 percent of respondents in Africa/Middle East use TETRA, 39.7 percent in the Asia/Pacific region deploy TETRA, and 28 percent of respondents in Latin America use the technology. Respondents in Latin America report using Project 25 (P25) as much TETRA.

Twenty-three percent of respondents implement the MPT 1327 standard and 21.6 percent use Digital Mobile Radio (DMR). According to survey results, less than 10 percent use EDACS from M/A-COM and less than 2 percent use the P25 standard in Europe.

Trunked radio, PMR, and wireless broadband are topics of interest to survey respondents in the region.

Lindsay A. Gross is managing editor of MissionCritical Communications and RadioResource International. Contact her at lgross@RRMediaGroup.com. .