The TETRA tsunami starts in Korea

8th October – ITS OFFICIAL………Asian manufacturers of TETRA handsets are now challenging established European providers in terms of price, quality and performance and after sales service support. Earlier this month, Korean manufacturer, UNIMO, passed an extensive series of tests by the country?s highly respected communication regulation agencies, NRSI and NEMA, thereby proving that UNIMO?s handset is able to operate reliably on even the most complex TETRA network.

As you would expect in the world?s most connected country, the Korean public security TETRA network is a large and highly sophisticated system which uses all available features and functions to their maximum potential. The authorities and users demand performance of the highest standard and despite the existence of an international system for interoperability approvals, require that all radio?s pass their own rigorous performance tests and requirements.

This approval adds to the many other formal IOP (interoperability) and EU type approvals which the UNIMO TETRA radio has passed during the last 18 months.

The complexity of TETRA, combined with a large network and the demanding operational environment of Seoul (one of the world?s largest cities) makes achieving such performance a spectacular achievement. In fact this approval has only been granted to 3 other radio providers, all of whom are based in Europe or USA.

Korea has become well known for the rise of its consumer brands such as Samsung and LG who have quickly become dominant in their fields on a global basis. This has demonstrated the exceptional abilities of Korean companies and their engineers to develop world class technologies and products and successfully deliver them to buyers. UNIMO, has partnered with TETRA technology provider, SRT PMR Technology Limited, and is following in this modern tradition. As a result, today UNIMO offers the only Korean designed and manufactured TETRA handset of exceptional quality and performance into a rapidly growing TETRA market which is now established in over 100 countries.

UNIMO has already sold its handset to a number of users around the world and one of the outstanding achievements in the private network (380-400MHz) is Hynix Semiconductors, the world’s third largest semiconductor manufacturer and the public network (806-870MHz) is Korea Army Military Police, where performance is critical to their operations.

Mr Justin Kim, Vice President at UNIMO said, “The development of a high quality TETRA handset has been a long and difficult task. However we are very proud to have achieved this fantastic Korean approval and look forward to providing local and international buyers with a high quality, low cost TETRA handset, coupled with exceptional after sales service.”

Simon Tucker, Group Managing Director of Software Radio Technology plc said, “UNIMO has done a terrific job in manufacturing this radio and obtaining the numerous formal approvals. Although these approvals are clearly important, I am even more impressed by the operational field performance we see on a daily basis. We look forward to working with UNIMO for many years into the future.”