The first generation of TETRA networks was deployed in 1997, hundreds of TETRA networks have been deployed across the world today. TETRA largest market is that of public safety, security forces & the Military where the trend is for the deployment of nationwide networks shared by all public safety organizations for reasons of economics, autonomy of operation for routine communications and the ability to fully interoperate with other services during emergency situations and disasters.
The main characteristics of TETRA are: the simultaneous transmission of voice and data messages (also in protected mode); and the possibility of making individual, group and general conference calls. TETRA rationalises the voice traffic based on priority indexes, enabling the system to avoid bottlenecks.