During October 1999, Auckland hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference (APEC). This conference at which the heads of state of all the major Pacific rim countries, including the USA and China attended, required a massive police security operation. The demand for communications facilities were such that the Police decided to install a digital trunked radio network in Auckland. This network was to be the basis for a nationwide digital radio system to replace the existing VHF and UHF analogue FM network. The Auckland system would fulfill the dual role of providing communications for APEC (and the subsequent police operations for the Millennium celebrations and the Americas Cup defence) and providing a pilot project for the introduction of digital radio nationally.

A contract to install the system was signed with a consortium of Tait Communications, and Simoco - a UK based company telecommunications company. The system was to operate in the 404-420 MHz Trunk Dispatch band, and use the newly developed Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) protocol.

Due to technical difficulties the installation failed to achieve the milestones necessary to guarantee operation by October 1999, and in order to ensure the communications facilities were in place by the due date, the contractors provided an alternative analogue trunked system using existing technology for the duration of the the APEC and Americas cup operations. This consisted of several hundred Simoco handheld and mobile radios and the associated repeater stations. The APEC operation used a combination of Analogue Trunked talk groups and conventional repeater and simplex channels. The Americas cup operation utilised two dedicated UHF repeaters operating in the 404-420MHz band.

Although the analogue system was found to be unsuitable for regular law enforcement communications it provided adequate communications for the limited requirements of the APEC operation.

The TETRA system eventually failed to live up to expectations, and the contract with Tait-Simoco was terminated in February 2001 after the technical difficulties were unable to be overcome within a reasonable time frame. (more>>)