1.35 In offering a price to the police for Airwave, O2 assumed that sharers would join the service and modelled the probable income under both favourable and restricted licence conditions. The modelling for the restricted licence, which accords with the actual Airwave licence, indicated additional revenues of between an almost certain 1.8 million a year, with few sharers, and £5.5 million a year. Based on current pricing for radio access alone, this assumes between 3,500 and 12,500 extra radios on the system but this does not take into account any fixed charges, heavy user charges or optional services, such as data applications. Given that the number of potential users allowed under the licence can be up to 50,000, the income from sharers estimated by O2 appears to be quite low. However, the output from the model is unclear and is not a suitable basis on which to accurately estimate likely sharer revenues.
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4 |
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The list of allowable sharers on Airwave |
The Key Allowable Sharers on Airwave
Civilian Emergency Services | Ministry of Defence Organisations |
British Transport Police | MOD Police |
Ports Police | Navy Police |
UK Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary | Royal Parks Constabulary |
Borough Parks Police | RAF Police |
Waterway, Tunnel and Airport police | Royal Marines Police |
Fire Brigades | Royal Military Police |
Airport Fire Brigade | Adjutant Generals' Corps - Provost Branch |
Air Ambulance | Defence Fire Service |
NHS Community Trust Staff | Army Fire |
NHS Hospital Trust Staff | RAF Fire |
Private Ambulance Services | Navy Fire |
Donor organ and transplant team transport | RAF Ambulance |
Patient Transport Services | Navy Ambulance |
Coastguard Service | Army Ambulance |
Air and Land Search and Rescue Services | Armed Forces' bomb disposal teams |
| HQ London (Army Regional Brigade) |
| Intelligence Corps |
| RAF Nuclear Accident Response Organisation |
| Security Services |
| Special Forces |
| Firing Range Security |
Other public safety and emergency response services | |
CCTV control rooms (under certain circumstances) | Traffic Wardens |
Prison Service | Nuclear Accident Authority |
Private Prisoner Transport | On-Site Fire Services (Magnox and BNFL sites) |
Privatised Police Patrols (including stadia and complexes) | Volunteer First responders |
Post Office Security and Investigation Service | Fraud Investigation Section of Department for Work and Pensions |
Customs and Excise enforcement branch and National Investigation Service | Home Office Fire and Emergency Planning fire appliances and assigned personnel |
EA Environmental Crime Unit | Immediate Care Schemes (eg. BASICS) |
Environment Agency Enforcement Officers | Inland Revenue Special Compliance Office |
UK Immigration Service - Ports and Enforcement Directorate | Local Authority Emergency Planning Departments |
National Nuclear Accident Response Communications System replacement |
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Source: Department of Trade and Industry | |
1.36 What is clear is that there is no provision in the contract for the police to share in the benefits from a higher than expected take-up of Airwave by sharers. O2 claims that, as no sharers were delivered up-front by PITO, O2 is in effect taking all the risk on this aspect of the deal and should reap all the benefits if it is successful. O2 is currently offering Airwave to sharers in the form of a voice service with guaranteed coverage. There is a basic annual charge plus an additional charge per radio connected to the service (Figure 5). Where additional functionality or coverage is required, it is subject to additional charges. As the police are not charged on a per radio basis, a direct comparison between sharer and police expenditure on Airwave is not possible.