Land Mobile Radio

At the heart of the Public Safety Network Te Kupenga Marutau is a new modern, secure national digital Land Mobile Radio network with sufficient resilience for emergency services to rely on it as a network of last resort.

The Land Mobile Radio network will enable increased communications between the emergency services by providing common communication channels. It will also support push to talk communications, which are used extensively by the emergency services, and enable location services which supports the safety of frontline staff. 

The new digital Land Mobile Radio network is part of the Public Safety Network, along with Cellular Priority and Roaming services and Personal Alerting.

The approximately 500 site Land Mobile Radio network is being delivered by Tait Systems NZ(external link) - a wholly owned subsidiary of Tait Communications. It will be completed by the end of 2026 ready for the emergency services to begin migrating to from their existing radio networks and using. 

Testing on a small-scale South Canterbury network

The Land Mobile Radio network will have approximately 500 radio sites and involve new handheld radios and mobile vehicle devices.  Given the magnitude and national significance of this network, it’s critical for the emergency services and network vendor, Tait Systems NZ, to be assured the solution will work when it goes live.

That’s why there has been a small-scale functioning digital Land Mobile Radio network available in South Canterbury from mid-2024 for the emergency services to carry out testing. While this is happening, emergency services in the area will continue to use existing radio networks for their daily operations.

The emergency services are now trying-out the new radios and devices using different operational scenarios by connecting to eight new digital radio sites. A new Tait Systems NZ Service Management Centre is in place to provide support to the emergency services and check the technology is working and information is flowing.  

Lessons learned during this period will help ensure the subsequent regional roll out of the Land Mobile Radio network across the country is effective and efficient and supports frontline responders to do their jobs and stay safe.

South Canterbury is an ideal region for the emergency services to carry out their testing because its geography hosts many of the features found across Aotearoa. This means the radio sites, signals and equipment can be efficiently tested across multiple terrains and scenarios to help prepare for the national deployment.