Airwave works on the Tetra radio protocol (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) which transmits signals on the 17.6Hz frequency. Some scientist fear Tetra's radio frequency is dangerously close to the 16Hz rate that brain pulses travel on.
However, in October 2002, security company ISS published details of base-station cloning, otherwise known as an evil twin traffic interception. BaseStation Clone (Evil Twin) intercept traffic - An attacker can trick legitimate wireless clients to...
The Tetra-based Airwave network provided by mobile operator O2 is aimed at providing the emergency services with a single high-speed encrypted voice and data communications system that cannot be intercepted by criminals scanning police radio...
Unlike BT, which is using wi-fi to route calls over a broadband connection, O2 fancies the idea of a mini-GSM reverse-engineered base station instead - the thinking being that the user won't need to upgrade to a new dual-mode device.
Clarifying his comments on the issue, Akhavan said later in the meeting "it is impossible to say there will be no new [base station] sites" because, for example, some areas still lack any mobile coverage at all.
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