Development

The preparations for a new standard, that should replace the radio systems up to then in use, began at the end of the eighties.

In the year 1990 standardization work for this new standard was begun.

With support of the European Commission and the members of the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) the requirements of the users and the system definitions were worked out then and specified.

This happened in close cooperation with the device and system manufacturers, network carriers, other experts and naturally also with the future users.

Principal purpose was to create a standard that fulfilled the needs of the public safety organizations (BOS) in Europe and also beyond.

At the end of 1994 the TETRA Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was created, its principal purpose is to support the TETRA standard and promote its propagation.

1995 the first version of the TETRA standard was published.

At the beginning TETRA was the abbreviation for „Trans European Trunked RAdio system“. The name was changed though when countries outside of Europe also began to be interested in this system.
Nowadays TETRA stands for TErrestrial Trunked RAdio.