30 January 2008 - AirRadio Ltd today announces the completion of the upgrade to their London Heathrow Trunk Network, deploying Xfin technology from Team Simoco Limited (TSL).  The network upgrade is the latest investment by AirRadio, the UK's largest provider of operational radios to the UK Air Transport Industry, confirming their commitment to providing innovative services to their customers who include airlines, ground handlers and airport service companies.

Customers will benefit from increased capacity, enhanced calling functionality and system resilience.  Xfin's dynamic channel pooling functionality enables any available channel to be automatically allocated to any radio, maximising channel usage across the site and simplifying call set up for the user.

The introduction of cross system group calling allows radios to operate in a roaming mode across the whole network rather than previously needing to be assigned to key areas of the network, such as a specified Terminal.  The Xfin upgrade has created a single operational zone across all airport terminals at Heathrow for sharing critical information enabling operations control to call resources from any part of the airport if needed at short notice. 

AirRadio Operations Director, John Fincham confirmed: "The upgrade of our Heathrow network to Xfin provides our customers with increased service capability and more efficient and responsive support.  Since deploying Xfin we have seen available capacity increase by over 20% providing resource optimisation for current customers and the opportunity to expand our customer base at Heathrow." 

He continued: "In terms of system resilience we now know that the network can cope in an emergency scenario, for example the recent event in January involving Flight BA038.  The network remained active and uncongested during this time enabling all our customers to communicate immediate instructions regarding their operations."

Mike Norfield, Managing Director of Team Simoco said: "Xfin's IP technology has revolutionised PMR, combining increased functionality with a lower cost of ownership over the product lifecycle.  The success of the Heathrow deployment confirms that Xfin has the resilience to be used in the most mission-critical operational environments in the world."

Xfin comprises the latest MPT1327 trunked radio base stations with IP Ethernet connectivity to provide a completely fault tolerant, open architecture, radio communications system.  Xfin provides an IP addressable base station, allowing remote configuration from authorised personnel and web-based diagnostics.  In addition, each Xfin has a telephone interface for connecting PABX/PSTN line interface, with full VoIP routing on the IP network to guarantee non-blocking to telephone while resource is available.