UK officials revamp ESN plans again, target Airwave-to-LTE transition for end of 2026

Further to our blog on the 19th September 2020 where it was announced in the meeting of the Public Accounts Committee of the UK Parliament that the new Emergency Services Network (ESN) has been a “troubled program in the past,” but expressed confidence that the project “has turned a corner” and is on track and Matthew Rycroft commented that “The absolute latest that we could turn Airwave off is 2025, and what we are seeking to do is to accelerate that date, so that we can turn it off by the beginning of 2024”

According to what we can read in the public domain on 29th July 2021 a Home Office official commented that the United Kingdom (UK) Emergency Services are expected to use the TETRA-based Airwave system for at least five more years, and the end of 2026 is the new target date for transitioning to the Emergency Services Network (ESN).

From what we can read in the public domain the United Kingdom (UK) public-safety agencies are scheduled to start the switching of critical voice communications from the Airwave TETRA radio system to the new Emergency Services Network (ESN) during the first half of 2024, this will be approximately a 27-month program with the target to shut down the Airwave Tetra Network by the end of 2026.

In summary, for the United Kingdom (UK) new Emergency Services Network (ESN) will rolled out in a number of phases starting sometime in 2024 with both the existing Airwave TETRA radio system and the new Emergency Services Network (ESN) running partly in parallel dependent on the different network migration plans until the final migration and switch over is completed at the end of 2026.

The switch over to Emergency Services Network (ESN) is only applicable to the United Kingdom (UK), the other Tetra Networks in other counties will be subjected to their own Network upgrade plans.