DOHA: Officials of the GCC states gathered here yesterday to tackle more of the pressing concerns confronting the Terrestial Trunked Radio (TETRA) or more commonly known as "Walkie Talkies" which is still important technology used for commercial, government and security sectors across the Gulf even in the fast pacing communication technology trends.
The Supreme Council of Information, Communication and Technology Qatar (ictQatar) which host the two-day event at the Diplomatic Club is expecting the meeting here will bring positive results as a result of discussions on technical, financial and adninistrative aspects of the forum earlier agreed during the Bahrain meeting in October last year.
IctQATAR presented the proposal for the creation of a regional forum on TETRA in conjunction with the delegation from the United Arab Emirates during the earlier meeting.
Officials also discussed during the meeting a technical paper from the Sultanate of Oman to determine the criteria for the use of TETRA in the border areas between the GCC countries and setup a mechanism to reduce the interference in the border areas, taking into account the overlapping nature of the border between the GCC Countries.
TETRA is a mobile radio or two-way receiver of which technology uses low radio frequencies for connection, allowing for communications over large geographic areas. It is frequently used by emergency services, such as police, fire and ambulance, as well as government agencies, military and transport services.
"It is important to bring together leaders in the region to discuss TETRA technologies to ensure a coordinated approach in how we manage this valuable technology and the radio frequencies, especially in a region with so many shared, close borders," said William Fagan, Executive Director of the Regulatory Authority at ictQATAR.
The meeting is being attended by delegations of all GCC countries including representatives of telecom regulatory authorities (TRA) and ministries of interior, as well as ICT experts and TETRA service providers.
At the side of the meeting, vendors of TETRA equipment including EADS Defence and Security, Motorola, Sepura, StopNoise, TETRAsim, WaveKorea and Fitelnet exhibited their products.
© The Peninsula 2009
