Port Moody connects all emergency services to E-Comm radio system
For immediate release—February 4, 2002
Vancouver-Port Moody is now the second city in southwest British Columbia to have all of its emergency services linked through the E-Comm wide-area radio system.
All three major emergency service agencies in Port Moody (police, fire, ambulance) can now communicate directly with one another as well as with their emergency counterparts in surrounding jurisdictions. The only other city with this communications capability is Vancouver.
Port Moody Mayor Joe Trasolini states “I am delighted with this new system. Our community understood the need for all emergency personnel to have the ability to communicate on a common channel and is very pleased with the clarity and range offered by this Wide-area radio system. It has made for a safer community for both the residents and our emergency personnel.”
In addition to the ability to directly communicate with emergency services both in and outside of Port Moody, the E-Comm radio system also offers Port Moody emergency personnel better radio coverage, including in-building coverage, enhanced personnel safety capabilities (emergency buttons), increased reliability, higher peak traffic capacity, and improved security.
“Operationally, it makes absolute sense for us,” said Port Moody Police Inspector Pat Fitzgerald. “We are surrounded by RCMP detachments that are going on to the system and for the safety of the city we need to be able to communicate with our neighbours. Shared communication is the way policing and emergency services has to go.”
More than 2,500 wide-area radios are now active in southwest British Columbia. Currently, the network processes approximately 2.6 million radio transactions each month. Further build-out of the radio system is in the planning stages and when completed in 2004, the ultimate coverage footprint will cover about 13,000 square miles of British Columbia and provide service to more than half the population of the province.
The E-Comm radio system incorporates a high degree of security through the use of post-disaster construction and system back-ups - features essential to a reliable radio system. In the event of a major disaster, radio communication will be paramount.
E-comm, one of Canada’s busiest emergency call centres, operates the 9-1-1 system for the Greater Vancouver Regional District, the Wide-Area Radio System, and dispatch operations for Vancouver Police, RCMP Freeway Patrol, and RCMP detachments at UBC, Bowen Island, Whistler, Pemberton (including the Tribal Police), Gibsons, and Sechelt. The radio system also supports special operations at the Vancouver International Airport and support services for RCMP emergencies.
For more information, contact:
Jody Robertson
E-Comm Corporate Communications
604- 215-4956
604- 640-1342 (pager)