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In view of planned expansion at Bahrain International Airport, Civil Aviation Affairs, Kingdom of Bahrain, announced the introduction of SITA’s Professional Mobile Radio service into the airport through a five-year $3.2 million agreement.
The fully managed turnkey solution which provides voice and data communication through a dedicated wireless network is now in operation for 640 users working for all airlines and ground handlers on the airport campus. The number of users is expected to grow to over 800 as the airport expands.
Captain Abdul Rahman Al Gaoud, Undersecretary for Civil Aviation Affairs, said: “SITA’s ability to provide a TETRA based Mobile Radio Service meets our needs exactly. The integrity of the radio coverage is constantly checked by a radio-link test system and the ‘signal coding’ within the system protects against eavesdropping. We are already looking to a second phase which will provide us with additional features.”
Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) is an open digital standard defined by the European Telecommunications Standard Institute (ETSI). Hani El Assaad, SITA Regional Vice President, Middle East and Turkey said: “SITA Professional Mobile Radio is the best private mobile voice solution for airports currently on the market. It includes Java-enabled handsets, which support air transport-specific applications like flight dialling, RFID-based security systems, control and supervision of airfield lighting and many other features which SITA’s exclusive focus on air transport makes us uniquely qualified to support.”
A second phase may include an RFID-based Guard Control System which requires security guards to swipe an RFID tag on pre-defined patrol routes or the supervisor is alerted. Also under discussion is flight dialling which enables the set-up of a temporary group based around a flight number for rapid and dynamic communications to all members of a turnaround crew.
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