'There has never been a realistic plan' for UK's £11B Emergency Services Network

theregister.com

The ESN is set to replace Airwave, the mobile comms systems used by the fire, police and ambulance services in the UK. Although reliable, Airwave is old and lacks data bandwidth. The Home Office started the program to deliver ESN in 2015, and hoped to begin using it in 2017, allowing Airwave to be replaced in December 2019. Under current plans, the ESN will not go live until 2026, and it may be as late as 2029.

According to a new PAC report, the Home Office still does not know when ESN will be ready and has little to show the taxpayer for its efforts despite having spent some £2 billion.

This is why we can't have nice things.

Dunno where that 2015 date came from, because it's worse than that... (from the source)

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-emergency-ser... Emergency Services Network

""" The Emergency Services Network will replace the existing Airwave communications network used by the police, fire and rescue, and ambulance services in the UK. """

Published 13 June 2013

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