Digital radio communications in the African local government space could open up the world, but have many chal-lenges to overcome, notes Emcom Wireless head of business development Tony Sipho Sibanda.
He says global migration from analogue to digital technologies across most wireless mediums from television to ‘two-way radio’ has resulted in some confusion about what to do, and how to plan for the future.

“This phenomenon extends right through from users to salespeople and regulators, and the African Professional Mobile Radio space has not been spared – especially when it comes to local government,” he adds.
There is also a “dire lack of interest and understanding” of technologies and the perceived benefits associated with migrating two-way radio from analogue to digital.
“When tasked with procuring radio com-munications solutions, decision-makers are often in doubt and overwhelmed and tend to take the easy route. They either hide behind a ‘friendly’, politically suitable manufacturer or purchase an expensive, well-marketed technology based upon purported international case studies, or issue personnel with cellphones,” he says.
He notes that mobile two-way radio is incorrectly seen as a dying technology in markets where its application and evolution have not been taught to emerging engineers and technicians.

The result of this underselling has seen a migration of technical skills towards the more consumer-focused sectors like information technology (IT) and the GSM public cellular phone industry.

The resultant skills gap, he mentions, coupled with management ignorance, has left critical mobile radio communications infrastructure in the hands of often poorly trained, ill-equipped technicians – relegated to a dwindling subdepartment in a company’s IT section, managing reactive maintenance without any budget.
“The shortage of technical skills, along with a sudden influx of cheap, poor quality imports that are often developed around proprietary technology, has caused a wide-scale disintegration of radio communication networks across several sectors, but especially in the local government and utilities sectors in Africa,” says Sibanda, adding that the breakdown of communications can be grave.
Most municipalities are faced with large service delivery constraints, in terms of monitoring and providing water and elec-tricity, effective policing and day-to-day main-tenance, as well as waste management; and the lack of reliable, cost-effective communications just adds to their woes.

Disaster management in incidents of flood-ing, fire and riots, he states, is compromised, where management cannot be proactive, mobilise resources, monitor infrastructure and communicate concisely to relevant teams when needed.

He further comments that it is not uncom-mon to walk into a municipality and find each of their departments running on independent, uncoordinated systems, with waste collection, police, electricity, administration and water all running on separate communications networks, with often duplicated infrastructure.

“Often there is no single point of account-ability and control and municipalities rely on legacy systems to communicate vital information, which may, or may not be delivered, defeating the need to have infra-structure in the first place.

“It is crucial for critical operations to estab-lish appropriate, cost-effective infrastructure to achieve central control, management and flexibility in order to customise user groups with its unique operational needs,” says Sibanda.

The digitisation of the old analogue two-way radio is now at the same exciting stage where cell phone technology was at the turn of the century. Smartphones have created a whole new revolution in the way consumers use technology. The mobile phone today is not just a voice transmitter and receiver, he points out, it is an extension of everyday life to the extent that very few among us can imagine a day without it.

Professional two-way radio currently features many voice call types, for example, group calls, direct private calls, emergency calls and dispatcher calls. The digitisation of radio communications brings with it better voice quality, better terminal battery life and spectrum efficiency.