Motorola lands $10.5m to keep emergency comms going for NSW SES

The technology group has landed $10.5m worth of new contracts to expand emergency services across NSW.

Motorola Solutions has landed $10.5m worth of new contracts to expand emergency services across NSW, arriving at a time when such services have come front of mind following a national outage last month.

The technology company was awarded contracts from NSW SES to expand its Public Safety Network, used by more than 50,000 first responders, with the funding forming part of a government flood rescue program.

It also received a contract to expand the reach of its broadband push-to-talk technology across the state from the NSW Telco Authority.

The contracts have landed as emergency communications have risen up the priority ladder across the country and amid the nation’s bushfire season.

Motorola Solutions has secured $10.5m worth of new contracts to expand emergency services across NSW. Picture: Gaye Gerard/NCA NewsWire

Emergency communications were brought back into the spotlight last month when a national outage at the nation’s second-largest telco left customers unable to reach emergency services.

Optus' customers should have been able to reach emergency services by piggybacking off other available networks, a service known as emergency mobile roaming, but the service failed amid the outage.

The nation’s largest telco Telstra was also fined $300,000 a fortnight ago for failing to provide details correctly to a public database used by emergency services to locate people in the event of a natural disaster.

Motorola Solutions, which has operated in Australia for the past 55 years, has landed a total of $70m worth of contracts related to the Public Safety Network.

It operates a subscription service called SmartConnect which allows NSW SES to connect to the state Public Safety network.

The service works by switching between land mobile radio and broadband networks to ensure a first responder has a connection.

SmartConnect is also used by Fire and Rescue NSW, used to keep firefighters connected while battling blazes in rural locations.

The ability to switch between networks reduced the amount of time emergency personnel wasted trying to change, said Con Balaskas, Motorola Solutions managing director.

“By automatically switching between the best available communication networks, SmartConnect helps first responders to stay focused on their mission instead of the technology that supports them,” he said.

NSW SES assistant commissioner Nicole Hogan said: “(Our) 10,000 highly dedicated volunteers need to be ready to respond to challenging and unpredictable events every day, including floods, storms, road crash incidents and search and rescue responses.”

“They require uninterrupted access to voice communication to perform their life-saving missions safely, especially when working in the most remote and rugged locations across the state.”