The Department of Finance is expected to issue initial tender documents next week for the building of a secure national digital radio network which will be used by the Garda and other emergency services.
The move has been expected for some months, but the fact that each of the emergency services are the responsibility of different departments is understood to have delayed the process.
The Government is seeking a managed service arrangement whereby the winning consortium would finance, build and operate the network.
It would then have an exclusive contract to provide service on the network to the various emergency services.
The network is expected to cost €100 million to build. The Government is believed to be favouring a seven-year contract but potential bidders are lobbying for a 15-year period, which is seen as more financially attractive.
Three main groups have emerged as likely winners of the contract. BT Ireland is believed to be joining Siemens and the professional mobile radio division of Airbus parent, EADS.
Eircom is also expected to bid for the contract with Motorola and its Irish distributor, Sigma Wireless. Motorola and Sigma built the first Tetra (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) network in Ireland for the Luas light rail.
Although under European procurement rules, the tender cannot specify which technology is to be used, it is expected all the main tenders will propose Tetra, which is the standard used by emergency services globally.
The third major bidder is expected to be O2 with its Airwave subsidiary. O2 Airwave won the £2.9 billion (€4.31 billion) contract to build the secure digital radio network for the British emergency services, which was completed in March 2005.
Telecoms industry sources say they expect a pre-qualifying questionnaire to be issued next week. A shortlist of candidates will be drawn up from that questionnaire for a tender process which is expected to take place early next year.
Providing nationwide coverage of all metalled roads, railway lines and ports is expected to require 250-500 masts. It is likely that the 185 masts erected by O2 at Garda stations around the State will be available to the winning bidder.
The successful consortium is also likely to want to negotiate multi-site agreements with other mast owners including RTÉ, ESB and the Office of Public Works.
The current analogue radio system used by the emergency services is 23 years old. It is not used by gardaí "above traffic division level" said one source, due to the ease with which communications can be monitored by criminals.
There are also areas of the State with poor or no coverage and the network is proving extremely costly to maintain.
Garda Representative Association president Dermot O'Donnell said his organisation welcomes the tender process, pointing out that a digital radio system had been piloted in 1997 and that the investment was long overdue.
