British policemen don't use radio because it's too expensive
By Stela Roman
Chisinau (Moldova.ORG) -- Airwave Solutions, the company that happens to own the network upon which the police urgently ask for backup, is alleged to charge quite a lot of money for the service. It seems that they charge 2 British pounds (around $3) for every second that the police exceed some pre-arranged limit of talk time. Yes, $3 for a second! I think it's not surprising that Airwave Solutions makes more profit than UK cell phone provider Vodafone.
British policepersons are being taught to text in order to avoid using their radios. Policemen are attending special courses during which they are taught to text. According to Daily Mail, police out on patrol or responding to an incident are under orders to keep in touch with their colleagues in the control room not by talking to them but by pressing buttons.
Police officers have been given a set of 16 numerical codes that correspond to buttons on their handset. By inputting the correct combination of digits, they can report their location and whether they are issuing a warrant, making an arrest, on a meal break or returning to base. The information is automatically fed into the control room computer.
In an emergency, they can summon help in the normal way. But if they are involved in a routine procedure, they have been told to use the messaging facility instead.
Clive Chamberlain, chairman of the Police Federation in Dorset is explaining the decision to send text messages instead of using their radios: «Airwave is a very expensive system which was forced upon the police service by the Government.» «We are being told that texting more has the potential to save tens of thousands of pounds because it costs only 4p to send 1,000 texts.», he added.
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