Firefighters to UK Home Office: Yeah, maybe don't turn off emergency comms network before replacement is ready
- Reference: 1596097805
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/07/30/bucks_fire_service_esn_doc/
- Source link:
In a pithy [1]document released earlier this month [PDF], Buckinghamshire & Milton Keynes Fire Authority pointed out that the current system, Airwave, is set to be turned off well before the deadline for rolling out the new Emergency Services Network (ESN), which is intended to provide fully featured voice and data comms for fire, rescue, police and ambulance services across the UK.
"The latest national version [of the National Delivery Plan] released in April 2020 indicates that all Fire Services will have transitioned from the Airwave system onto the ESN by Q4 2024," it said. "This would mean that the earliest point at which the Airwave system can be switched off would be Q4 2024, however the official date for this is still December 2022."
That is the current plan, as far as this particular fire service sees it. But it also hints at another proposal regarding the network's future, which "shows the earliest possible date for Airwave switch off as being Q4 2024 however this has not officially [been] confirmed at this stage".
The fire service said it would also like to see a year pass between the ESN going live and Airwave turning off.
The document also shows that detailed business cases for the whole show is yet to materialise. Remember, this is a system that was supposed to be implemented by <checks notes> 2017. Although to be fair, the project was [2]completely revised in 2018.
"The Full Business Case was due to have been completed early in 2020 and should have passed through various governance stages in order to be released around May 2020," the Buckinghamshire document said. "However, we have received notification that it will not now be released for some time. This is in part due to Programme resources being re-assigned to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, assessment of impact of the pandemic and how it might affect ways of working and the delivery of the various aspects of the project."
A Home Office spokesperson said: “The ESN will provide police, fire services and ambulance crews with an innovative mobile-based communications system that can transform their emergency response. We will continue to monitor progress to ensure the successful delivery of this programme.”
The central government department said that if Airwave was required after December 2022, then it would "extend the existing contract with Motorola, for the additional period, to minimise the cost and disruption to operational Users of Airwave".
The spox added that work on the full business case was paused to make resources available to support the departmental response to COVID-19. "This work has now resumed and the FBC will enter formal approvals governance in the Autumn."
Anyone surprised at the gigantean cock-up at the centre of this plan for a piece of communication infrastructure vital to public safety might be unfamiliar with the £3bn overspend and five-year delay that has attracted no less than eight appearances before the Public Accounts Committee (the UK's Parliamentary spending watchdog) and been the subject of two [3]National Audit Office reports .
Realising the new system would not be ready in time, the Home Office shifted to extending contracts to support the old kit, and implement the new system.
In March, [4]Capita won a contract to ensure existing Airwave emergency radios can work with the ESN , which is set to run on EE's 4G network.
In June last year, the Home Office [5]extended its ESN contract with Motorola until December 2024, at an additional cost of £82m, bringing the total value to £401m.
Given the apparent state of the project, concerns that [6]4G might not even be the right technology for it , and the pandemic-related disruption, no one would be surprised to see further delays, not least its main customers.
In [7]a member meeting report [PDF] from March, the Fire Services Management Committee of the Local Government Association said: "Work is ongoing on deployment planning, but there remain a number of areas where greater certainty or clarity is required to provide individual, sector and (three emergency services) implementations plans of higher confidence."
We suppose those set to use the ESN might be more confident if the Home Office was not currently planning to turn off the old system before the rollout of the new one is due to finish. ®
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[1] https://bucksfire.gov.uk/documents/2020/07/item-7-emergency-services-mobile-communication-programme.pdf/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2018/09/24/emergency_services_network_phased_approach_three_years_motorola/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2019/05/10/home_office_cops_an_earful_for_emergency_network_feck_ups_3bn_overbudget_and_3_years_late/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/03/11/capita_esn_contract/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2019/06/21/home_office_extends_motorola_contract_for_esn/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2015/01/08/airwave_tetra_switch_off_gov_services_onmishambles/?page=3
[7] https://lga.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s24756/FSMC%20ESMCP%20Update%20Feb%202020%20v1.0.pdf
[8] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Business cases?
I've prepared a number of business cases for a variety of employers and clients. The main skill is the ability to understand/guess the outcome that's required and then to be able to make the business case support it.
There's a good one recently - the A9 dualling cost-benefit analysis showed that the project would return less value than it cost so the Scottish Gov. hired some consultants (not me) to assign a monetary value to the cost of driver frustration. This came to £430 million – £86 million more than the value given to collision reduction - and tipped the project return into the black.
Re: Business cases?
Anyone driving on the A9 regularly would consider dualling the carriage way to be value for money.
"Anyone surprised at the gigantean cock-up"
. . has not been reading El Reg.
Honestly, telling me about the £3bn overspend is useless. UK Government has pissed away so many billions on so many different failures that one specific figure isn't enough to tell which failure we're talking about.
What is not surprising is firefighters reminding government that hey, that comms system you're going to shut down ? We still need it, and we'll be needing it until you pull your finger out and get the next one working.
Re: "Anyone surprised at the gigantean cock-up"
Don't worry, it'll be fine.. Capita are on it!
The 5G ESN sponsorship deal went out of the window...
The blue-light sirens were to be re-tuned to emit a sponsorship message...
Huuuuaaaaaweeeeeeiiiiiii..... Huuuuaaaaaweeeeeeiiiiiii.
Been saying it for a long while
And it's good that the customers are now saying it as well.
Not only is the mythical next generation not going to be as resilient as tetra (it can't be, the tetra setup was designed with multiple levels of redundancy throughout and that's one reason it cost a little bit), but it's going to be so ridiculously late as to be DOA.
why not wait until 3/4/5G is actually rolled out, and then hop on the bandwagon? Maybe with a supplementary radio for higher data applications, maybe just in vehicles to start with.
Then, once that is usefully working, start considering moving voice to join it. But the tech behind volte doesn't naturally map onto the use case of our emergency services.
And the mobile phone networks can't cope with a simple New Year in London, let alone the required capacity for the London Riots... (in some respects the total traffic should be lower, and they can turn off the system for the plebs, but even so I have serious doubts.
Re: Been saying it for a long while
I thought that the mobile networks now had some override functions built-in to allow essential services capacity when the normal traffic was blocking the system due to a major event (not a Boy's Own comeback). If not, then it does seem like a good idea.
Another delusion crashes and burns
I recall when the loudest argument for making the change was huge cost savings for the tax payer.
I guess I get no applause for having said the cost savings weren't that great anyway, would never materialise, it would be over-budget, late to arrive, not perform as expected, likely never even completed, because any fool could have predicted that with a good degree of certainty.
It's not having done brexit earlier which I blame. Once brexit is done Britannia will again rule the waves and the British Disease will simply disappear. So I'm told.
Most likely we'll just buy Chine^W American. Or keep spunking money up the wall and flushing it down the drain.
Re: Another delusion crashes and burns
"I guess I get no applause for having said the cost savings weren't that great anyway, would never materialise, it would be over-budget, late to arrive, not perform as expected, likely never even completed, because any fool could have predicted that with a good degree of certainty."
To be fair, that's just called looking at whatever failed Government IT scheme is in the news this month. :(
Business cases?
So, the system was due to go live in 2017, and was heavily revised in 2018, yet the business case to justify it wasn't due until 2020? I would have thought the business case should be done first, as they are usually done so that a company can assess the impact of a project on it's business., and thus decide if it's worth the time and expense.