From sophisticated devices brimming with new technologies and cutting-edge functionality, to those meeting more basic end-user needs, the TETRA handset scene is an area of active innovation, with a healthy and growing manufacturing base and, most importantly, an apparently satisfied end-user base whose needs – critical in many cases – are apparently being met. 

And while the European public safety sector continues as the alpha male of the TETRA pack, increasing demand from other sectors, such as transport, utilities and industrial markets, demonstrates that business critical users are increasingly adopting TETRA. The need, therefore, for a healthy terminal reservoir is paramount.

Setting the scene 

The TETRA terminal sector was recently described as an exciting and dynamic market that is still seeing strong growth, by lead IMS analyst on terminals and author of its annual TETRA Terminal World Reports, Deryn Evans. With Europe the dominant market for terminals last year, Evans said that shipments to the rest of the world had also seen ‘good’ growth during that period and predicted that future growth in emerging as well as business critical markets would ensure a ‘robust future’ for the standard and, hence, one supposes, the demand for terminals.

In the wake of IMS’s latest TETRA Terminals – World – 2012, published in March, Evans told TETRA Today that in terms of the overall general trends in the TETRA handset sector, “TETRA has seen its most successful year in terms of terminals shipped; there was over nine per cent growth on the number shipped in 2010. While growth is projected over five years, 2011 growth may be high in terms of the level of growth forecast.” An ever-cautious Thomas Lynch from IMS actually put a figure on this during the TWC Dubai in May of around 500 000 handsets shipped in 2011.

Though the European public safety and security market remained the backbone for TETRA shipments, Evans went on to say that in the last year significant developments outside Europe, including the Middle East, Africa, South America and Australasia, had been seen – those Middle Eastern developments highlighted in part at this year’s TETRA World Congress by Sepura, when it presented its one millionth handset after only 10 years in operation to Q-Tel. 

While Evans saw this as good news for TETRA overall, highlighting an increased interest in the technology and those trends towards the Middle East, she didn’t feel it amounted to an increasing market share for any single manufacturer.

On developments relating to specific handset types, Evans said that there had been an increased adoption of ATEX devices and that, in 2011, five per cent of all TETRA terminals shipped met ATEX requirements. “There has been increasing success for TETRA ATEX in places that are not traditional TETRA regions”, Evans told TETRA Today. “Due to the increased recognition of the requirement for intrinsically safe equipment, the oil, mining, gas and fire sectors are increasingly adopting TETRA ATEX. So regions that have large oil and gas reserves are opting for TETRA more and more as their technology of choice, when migrating to new radio communications systems.” She now believes it to be the case that “all the major TETRA manufacturers produce and ship ATEX handsets”, confirming her list of players, in simple alphabetical order, as: “Cassidian, Hytera, Motorola, Selex, Sepura, Teltronic, Thales and Unimo”.

Another area seeing specific changes and growth in the use and demand for TETRA terminals is the covert sector, where Evans told TETRA Today that “approximately two per cent of all TETRA users are now using covert [devices].” The IMS analyst projected that more covert user groups will start to migrate to TETRA systems as the market becomes more mature.

Evans also suggested that a major factor in how devices have evolved with increased functionality was a change in their operational usage and wider variety of end-user applications. “End users require more bespoke solutions”, Evans said, “but they still require rugged and compact solutions, unlike the typical commercial cell phone. As with covert and ATEX, terminals with increased functionality seem to be the trend.”

Substantial investment

At the TWC Dubai in May, a number of handsets appeared on the scene for the first time, supported by existing equipment which has been the mainstay for TETRA users for some while. About Motorola’s new family of devices, the TCCA’s Phil Kidner said that, as the largest manufacturer of TETRA terminals in the world, he was very excited by Motorola’s investment in its new generation of handsets – the MTP3000 series – which showed huge faith in the longevity of the standard. He echoed the views of IMS, saying that since 2007 – a good year for handsets – 2011 had been the most successful in terms of the number of terminals shipped and that this would continue, bolstered by an expected eventual migration of 80 per cent of analogue PMR users across to digital technology.
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