What is TETRA?
Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA) is an open standard for digital professional mobile radio (PMR). The technology is used by agencies in public safety, transportation, utilities, government, military and many more.
Backgroud
The TETRA Academy is a fully fledged TETRA training centre housed in the Faculty of Engineering, the Built Environment and Information Technology at NMMU. It is the first of its kind internationally where TETRA training is done in collaboration with a university, and one of only five EADS TETRA training centres internationally. The other four are in France, Germany, Finland and the USA.
The value of the investment in the TETRA Academy at the NMMU amounts to R 26.7 million, including equipment (hardware and software), NMMU staff training and the fittings and furniture in the Academy.
The University will also train students registered for Bachelor of Technology degrees in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, in aspects of radio communication systems based on the TETRA standard. This option of using the TETRA Academy to train University students will make a major contribution to providing employees with the necessary skills to install and maintain TETRA-based radio communication networks in the Eastern Cape Province and further afield. This will be crucial to the success of using this technology in South Africa.