TCCA, the global member-led organisation for all stakeholders in the critical communications ecosystem, is pleased to announce that a new government authority has joined as a member – the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of North Macedonia.

Among its other responsibilities, the Ministry maintains and develops the national TETRA public safety network. The Macedonian TETRA system has been in operation since 2010, initially as a partial coverage system primarily for the border regions. After several updates and upgrades, from 2014 it has been a full-IP nationwide network. Following further enhancements in 2021, the system is running on the latest software with completely new central switching locations.

The redundant design of the network ensures reliable service for all user organisations. These include the Police and Border Police, Emergency Medical Services, Territorial Firefighter Units, Military, Crisis Management Center, and others.

A high level of secure communications is provided by the TETRA TEA2 encryption algorithm. The network has functionality expansion with Dispatcher application, Voice recording and Geo-location (AVL). Currently the system has 106 base stations and more than 7000 subscribers.

“The Ministry of the Interior has decided to join TCCA to support the association in its mission to create and improve a secure communication environment. In the next period many challenges and changes in technology are expected; building of new infrastructure, new applications, and a new way of thinking which will offer many opportunities. We see TCCA as a leader in the new processes and in the promotion of new technologies,” said Jané Stojanov, Head of Sector for Telecommunications at the Ministry of the Interior. “All interested parties who are involved in the processes are members of TCCA, and that is where we belong. We want to share our experiences with other members, and of course learn new things from other community members. We believe that personal acquaintances and constant communication is the key to success.”

“We are extremely pleased to welcome the Ministry to TCCA,” said TCCA Board chair Mladen Vratonjić. “Their long experience of operating a TETRA network will bring valuable perspective to the critical communications community, and we very much hope they will continue to support our Government Global Village initiative at Critical Communications World. This provides a platform for government organisations to discuss the opportunities and challenges involved in securing their citizens.”

At TCCA’s Critical Communications World 2023 event, government authorities from 20 countries joined the Global Village, coming from Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, The Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Spain, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the USA.

About the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of North Macedonia

The Ministry carries out the work related to the implementation of the state and public security system, the control of crossing the state border, maintaining public order and peace, providing assistance in the event of natural disasters and epidemics, producing personal documents of citizens (passports, personal ID cards and drivers’ licenses) and other things established by law. For more information please visit https://mvr.gov.mk/