Accord between National Parks England and Home Office lays ground for mobile network roll out
National Parks England has reached a deal with the Home Office for the extension of the Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) over its parkland.
They have signed a joint accord to support the roll out of the Emergency Services Network (ESN) over the 10% of the country covered by National Parks, giving police, ambulance and fire and rescue services access to the 4G mobile infrastructure for voice and data communications.
The accord is aimed at making the network available for the blue light services through the parks while minimising the environmental impact, with National Parks, the Home Office and contractors working together on the implementation.
The contracts for the ESN were awarded last year, with EE becoming responsible for mobile services, Motorola Solutions for user services and Kellogg Brown & Root taking on the role of main delivery partner.
Sympathetic
Mike Penning, the Home Office minister with the brief for the project, said: “This new critical national infrastructure will be sympathetic to the character of national parks in England. It will enable the three emergency services to operate enhanced services inside national parks using modern 4G voice and fast data service communications.”
The ESN is being set up to replace the Airwave network, providing a network for more than 300 organisations in addition to the three emergency services. The work involves the provision of an air to ground network, vehicle installations, control room upgrades, user devices and accessories.
Picture by Pete Saunders, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
