The exclusive 2-way pager, available to all Acknowledge Paging and Respond Paging users, is MTPAS enabled by default for all Category 1 and 2 Responders in order to provide extra-resilience for your communications.
What does this mean?
During an incident where the GSM network may experience traffic overload, MTPAS can be activated in order to provide devices with MTPAS SIM’s, privileged access to the mobile network.
Who can benefit?
Category 1 and 2 Responder organisations (as defined in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004), that is; local government, emergency services, utilities and transport companies are eligible for the scheme. Partner organisations who may support these organisations at the scene of an emergency incident may also be eligible. Please contact PageOne to see if you are entitled to use MTPAS SIMs. The scheme is not available to members of the public.
Unlike voice handsets, the availability of which is limited in eligible organisations, 2-Way pagers are not subject to the same quantity restrictions due to their small bandwidth requirements.
How does the system work?
PageOne installs a special MTPAS enabled SIM into all 2-way pagers when despatched to eligible organisations. During an incident where public overload is experienced on GSM networks, the local transmitter or transmitters or even the whole of the UK can be switched for privileged access.
- You can read more about 2-Way Paging working in conjunction with MTPAS by downloading the fact sheet
- For further information on the MTPAS scheme, please refer to the cabinet office website entry on resilient communications.
