Western Power Selects Team Simoco’s Xfin for Major £5m Wireless Data Communications Upgrade

Leading utilities company Western Power has selected Team Simoco to carry out a major £5m upgrade of its communications network, providing complete voice and data comms to support over 10,000 network calls per day and boosting resilience across a service area of 26,000 square kilometres.

The upgrade, which is one of the largest utility radio network contracts of its kind awarded in the UK, will enhance voice and data communications between staff and with important network equipment, and will ensure optimum service for the company’s 2.4 million customers in the South West and Wales.

Western Power has opted for Team Simoco’s advanced Xfin technology for the entire upgrade, with 370 Xfin blades deployed at 103 sites to serve 1600 mobile users, either by handheld radios or in-vehicle installations. The system will provide coverage across some of the most diverse terrain in the UK, from highly populated urban areas such as Bristol and Cardiff, to rural and coastal areas such as Dartmoor, the Brecon Beacons, Cornwall and the Gower.

Phil Allen, Logistics Manager at Western Power said: “The Xfin system provides the enhanced data capability we were looking for, and with an eye to the future, can be developed further to cater for any advances in technology. Another key consideration was our need to ensure that any new system would continue to be secure and resilient during emergency situations.”

Mike Norfield, Team Simoco Managing Director said: “When 2.4 million customers in South West England and South Wales rely on you for their electricity, you can’t afford to take chances with your communications. This is a landmark contract proving the capability of Xfin IP architecture with VoIP in one the largest and operationally critical PMR network environments. It represents the coming of age of Xfin technology as a new standard in radio communications.”

Western Power chose to partner with Team Simoco because the combination of Xfin technology and customised support best met the company’s telecoms requirements. Team Simoco has worked closely with Western Power during installation and deployment to fine tune the operating system and develop an Xfin system customised to meet current and future business requirements.

The IP core of the system has enabled the integration of generic utility applications and interfaces, positioning Xfin as an attractive proposition for customers throughout the sector.

The Xfin Multisite provides a fully functional system controller and base station in a single, rackmount unit. It delivers voice and data communications over an IP backbone, and includes integrated telephony channel interfaces as standard, allowing dynamically allocated telephone audio to be routed over an IP network to any traffic channel.

The future-proofed design enables easy network expansion, while its distributed IP system architecture and multiple fallback modes means Xfin is the only inherently resilient MPT1327 system. Xfin’s remote diagnostics enable centralised management control, and its hot-swap modular replacement enables live system maintenance without loss of service – a key consideration for Western Power in such a large, distributed network.