digital radio in action - Hytera Communications Corporation Limited

INTERVIEW WITH: GS KOK
popular, Kok points out that the DMR
Association is far larger than the dPMR
Association. He adds that IMS Research
reports show that Motorola Solutions has
sold more than one million DMR terminals,
while the combined sales figures for the
main dPMR vendors are far below that total.
‘The future for DMR is very bright,’ says
Kok. ‘We won the battle for the professional
market, but we are still working hard to
get a solution for the commercial market.
The next step is to develop a very low-cost
radio for DMR, but every manufacturer will
be hard pressed to provide that. Can we
provide a one-use $20 radio from Walmart
I think Family Service Radio will remain,
as I don’t see the point in changing the
frequency. It would be very challenging to
provide that solution.
‘We are under tremendous pressure to
develop an entry-level DMR product, so we
can accelerate the change from analogue
to digital. But this forces us to be more
creative and come up with better products
at cheaper prices. Our objective is to release
something next year for the entry-level
DMR market.’
Kok continues: ‘Our research team is
very busy, especially in China, where it is
mandatory for the police services to migrate
to digital by 2016. That’s a very tall order, as
there are a lot of analogue radios to replace
and the replacement must be in a similar
cost range as those analogue radios.’
PDT DEVELOPMENT
As a result of this, Hytera is also heavily
involved in developing China’s alternative
to DMR and dMPR in the shape of the PDT
(Professional Digital Trunking) standard,
which is being driven by the Information
and Telecommunication Bureau of the
Chinese Ministry of Public Security.
PDT is broadly similar to the ETSI
standard for DMR Tier III, in that it uses
two-slot TDMA in 12.5kHz channel spacing,
although there are some differences.
Kok explains that PDT is very
China orientated. The stimulus for its
development was the Beijing Olympics,
where the government had to provide an
affordable two-way radio system.
‘They looked at TETRA, but the cost was
prohibitive,’ explains Kok. ‘Look at how
many cities need to be digitised. China has
had to bow out from TETRA – it’s only some
big cities such as Shanghai, which can pay
for it, that are adopting it.
‘But if you take somewhere like Chengdu,
which is remote, but still a very big city in
Inner Mongolia – it has a large population,
but not much economy, so the only choice
is for something that replaces its ageing
MPT system with an affordable product that
expands the feature set.’
China looked to embrace an open
standard, but found that adopting DMR
meant paying too much in licences and
royalties, so the government and others,
including Hytera, got to work on developing
the more cost-efficient, home-grown PDT
Retail win: Hytera recently upgraded
radio communications at River Island’s
distribution centre in the UK
‘The future for DMR
is very bright. We
won the battle for
the professional
market, but we are
still working hard to
get a solution for the
commercial market’
solution. The company is now the main
supplier of PDT equipment. ‘You can put IP
into it, but that IP is free for all to use, since
you had been consigned by the Government
to draft the Standards’ says Kok.
He adds: ‘In China, the migration to
digital is only just starting in public safety
and utilities, but once the police move
then the professionals will follow. PDT
is only just rolling out this year, but we
expect the speed to pick up next year. We
need to get a tier of products that will
persuade the commercial people to follow
after the professionals. So, there is a long
way to go in China – 80% of the market is
still analogue.’
Kok believes that with the Chinese
government pumping in RMB200m to
mitigate the police analogue radios to
digital, people are looking to partake in
R&D in China. ‘It’s a big market and they
want a piece,’ he says. He also thinks that
despite PDT’s China focus, its functionality
and affordability will make it attractive to
other countries, especially developing ones.
Tests are underway in Vietnam, Indonesia,
Thailand and Cambodia, and there have
been enquiries from Latin America, the
Middle East and even Europe.
The focus in Europe, however, has until
recently largely been confined to DMR.
But the acquisition of Rohde & Schwarz’s
PMR division (now known as Hytera Mobil
Funk), which was finalised earlier this year,
means Hytera can now also offer a full
range of end-to-end TETRA solutions.
Naturally, Hytera faces stiff competition
for both DMR and TETRA in a mature
market such as Europe. Kok says: ‘When
there is a lot of competition, manufacturers
have to be more creative to capture bigger
markets and gear it towards what the
customer wants. Look at Apple’s iPhone:
there is nothing really new about it, but
what it does is package it in a way that the
customer is comfortable with, and load it
with apps that are so much easier to use.
‘When Steve Jobs was a young man he
focused a lot on R&D, but it’s not about
having the most advanced technology; it
is about utilising it in a way that makes it
easier for customers and more profitable
for your company,’ says Kok.
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