Logistics Walkie Talkies in Singapore

Singapore has a good mix of localised private networks and public nationwide networks which serve businesses and enterprise users. These networks usually operate on digital trunked radio (TR) technologies, such as the Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN), and are allocated under the 800 MHz spectrum band which is reserved for enterprise communications.

The iDEN technology is a proprietary network developed by Motorola in 1993, from which most walkie-talkie systems in Singapore operate on today. Business and enterprise users usually prefer such dedicated networks for increased security, flexibility, and control, and use features that are not typically found on public mobile networks. These features include the ability to make one-to-many group calls and mission critical Push-to-talk (“PTT”) functionality – where information can be verbally communicated to all field staff in different locations simultaneously, especially so in logistics companies.

In 2019, IMDA proposed the reallocation of spectrum for enterprise and mobile use, where the sub-band 814-821/ 859-866 MHz would be designated for public (commercial) trunked radio users. The existing iDEN public trunking network will thus be refarmed to this band. The impact on users is expected to be minimal as the frequency changes are done on the base stations’ end and will not affect the customers’ terminals as the proposed bands are still within the existing operating band of the iDEN network.