Published in D.R. number 83 (Series I-B) of 8 April 2003

Presidência do Conselho de Ministros (Presidency of the Council of Ministers)

Resolution

The existence of some entities with attributions in the scope of the emergency and security, tutored by different ministries, imposes, in the domain of the communications, the use of a single national network in shared, digital trunking technology that it will allow, in emergency case, the centralization of the command and the coordination of the various security forces and services.

The existence of this national network will allow, still, to satisfy, in an efficient manner, the operational requirements of those forces and services, guaranteeing the quality, the reliability and the security of the communications, as well as the rationality of means and existing resources.

The Resolution of the Council of Ministers nr. 26/2002, of 5 February, has named the project and the national emergency network of SIRESP - Sistema Integrado das Redes de Emergência e Segurança de Portugal (Integrated System for Portugal’s Security and Emergency Network), defining it as a single, national, shared system, based in one only infrastructure, which must assure the satisfaction of the communications needs of the emergency and security forces and services, allowing intercommunication and interoperability between those forces and services and, in case of an emergency, enabling the centralization of leadership and coordination.

Considering that the configuration and management of the national security and emergency communications, demand secrecy and operationalization and considering the particular complexity and specificity of the structure of the system itself, opposed to the public interest in presence, which implies essential security interests of the Portuguese State, the Ministry of Internal Administration, through the Cabinet of Studies and Planning of Installations (GEPI), pursuant to paragraph i) of nr. 1 and nr. 2 of article 77 of Decree-Law nr. 197/99, of 8 June, has already begun the necessary procedure to engage a financial and legal advisory body which will assure the monitoring of the administrative proceeding to be adopted for hiring the supply of SIRESP - Integrated System for Portugal’s Security and Emergency Network, as well as the suitable institutional model for that System’s management.

In the current picture of contention of the public expenditure, the redefinition of the installation conditions of that System becomes necessary in order to assure its implementation in useful time.

In consonance with the objective to implement the SIRESP - Integrated System for Portugal’s Security and Emergency Network, the model of entities which assure the management and operationalization of that System, is defined.

Thus:
Pursuant to paragraph g) of the article 199 of the Constitution, the Council of Ministers hereby resolves:

1 - To establish that the Integrated System for Portugal’s Security and Emergency Network, designated ahead by SIRESP - Integrated System for Portugal’s Security and Emergency Network, is a single system, based in one only shared, national telecommunications infrastructure, which must assure the fulfilment of the communications needs of the emergency and security forces and services, allowing intercommunication and interoperability among the several forces and services and, in case of an emergency, enabling the centralization of leadership and coordination.

2 - To establish that the SIRESP - Integrated System for Portugal’s Security and Emergency Network shall be shared by the following entities, without prejudice to others that may come to be identified: the humanitarian associations for voluntary fire fighters, the Portuguese Red Cross, the Directorate-General for the Forests, the Directorate-General for Prison Services, the Army, the Portuguese Air Force, the National Republican Guard, the Institute for Nature Preservation, the Inspectorate-General for Economic Activities, the National Institute for Medical Emergency, the National Institute for Forensic Medicine, the Navy, bodies of the national maritime authority, the Judicial Police, the Public Safety Police, the Foreigners and Border Service, the Security Information Service, the National Fire-Fighters Service and the National Civil Protection Service.

3 - To establish that the SIRESP - Integrated System for Portugal’s Security and Emergency Network foresees the necessary links to the National Council of Emergency Civil Planning, in order to assure the telecommunications means, that in crisis situations, serious abnormality or in war time, guarantee the indispensable articulation between this agency and the services of emergency and security.

4 - To establish that the 380 MHz-383 MHz/390 MHz-393 MHz bands are set apart for the SIRESP - Integrated System for Portugal’s Security and Emergency Network use, and in case of necessity, to make available the extension bands of 383 MHz-385 MHz/393 MHz-395 MHz.

5 - To determine, as to the implementation of the SIRESP - Integrated System for Portugal’s Security and Emergency Network a guaranteed access to the frequency bands engaged to emergency and security communications, reserved for this purpose by the National Communications Authority, ICP-ANACOM, to the entities mentioned in nr. 2 paragraph which so request it and which cumulatively, make use of the digital trunking technology and undertake to transfer the management and use of the stations and the equipment, under the terms to be agreed between the parties, to the entity which shall come to hold the single infrastructure of the SIRESP - Integrated System for Portugal’s Security and Emergency Network. The consignment of frequency bands to those entities is carried out by means of a duly based order and is conditioned to the spectre availability.

6 - To adopt the principle of the user-payer for the operation and usage of the system.

7 - To establish that, taking into account the essential need of making the existing telecommunications infrastructures profitable and technically compatible with the SIRESP - Integrated System for Portugal’s Security and Emergency Network, in its phase of implementation, the Ministry of Internal Administration must agree with the entities holding those infrastructures, the use terms of the ones which can be integrated in the SIRESP’s support.

8 - To establish that all the basic technological infrastructure of the SIRESP - Integrated System for Portugal’s Security and Emergency Network shall be installed in a staged manner, over six years. In the first stage, to be performed in 2003 and 2004, base stations and all the basic infrastructure corresponding to urban and suburban areas of the cities of Lisbon, Oporto, Braga, Guimarães, Coimbra, Aveiro, Leiria and Faro, will be installed. In the following stages, to be executed between 2005 and 2008, the covering of the districts of Lisbon, Port, Braga, Coimbra, Aveiro, Leiria and Faro, will be finished and installed, in compliance with the implementation scenario to be adopted, of the rest of the base stations, as well as all foreseen infrastructure in the remaining mainland districts.

9 - To establish that in parallel with this installation, and in articulation with the Regional Governments of the Autonomous Regions of Azores and Madeira, be designed a specific plan to install the base stations and all the corresponding basic infrastructure in those Autonomous Regions.

10 - To determine that the requirements of the radio electric coverage demanded by SIRESP - Integrated System for Portugal’s Security and Emergency Network enable connections starting from 1 W portable equipments in 95% of locations and 95% of the time in the urban and suburban areas, highways and main itineraries and in 90% of locations and 95% of the time in the rural areas and remaining ways of communication, penetration into buildings at 80% in the urban areas and at 50% in the rural areas. In rural areas, the existence of premises that justify a higher signal penetration shall be taken into account.

11 - To determine that, given the nature of the services that the SIRESP - Integrated System for Portugal’s Security and Emergency Network will go to support (emergency and security), the System shall have a redundancy of the network essential elements which guarantees an operational availability higher than 99,9%.

12 - To determine that the System allows an encrypted communication all over the network, ensuring confidentiality, complying with European directives and international agreements, guaranteeing the interoperability of the System and of the terminals and complying with communications basic functional requirements.

13 - To determine the creation of a council of users, of exclusively public nature, integrating representatives of all the network users and presided by an element to be appointed by the Minister of the Internal Administration.

14 - To determine that the Government defines, in a diploma of its own, the model of the entity to be created for the management and exploitation of the SIRESP - Integrated System for Portugal’s Security and Emergency Network, its articulation with the council of users, as well as the regulation of this council.

15 - To determine that the acquisition, the installation and the maintenance of the SIRESP - Integrated System for Portugal’s Security and Emergency Network might have as a basis, a public-private partnership, complying with the terms, rules and procedures foreseen in the legislation applicable in this substance, if the necessary requirements are verified, and that it will work in accordance with management rules aiming at its self-financing.

16 - To provide the Ministry of Internal Administration, in articulation with the National Communications Authority, ICP-ANACOM, with responsibility for the coordination of the process leading to the implementation of the SIRESP - Integrated System for Portugal’s Security and Emergency Network, as well as for the technological migration of the existing networks, without prejudice to the capacities attributed by law, to other entities.

17 - To repeal the Resolution of the Council of Ministers no. 26/2002, of 5 of February.

The Presidency of the Council of Ministers, 19 March 2003. - The Prime-Minister, José Manuel Durão Barroso.