Carlson Wireless announces that it recently acquired the SafeTLink™ point-to-point T1 digital microwave 4.9 GHz radio. The radio operates in the 4.9 GHz public safety frequency band and transmits a full or fractional T1 signal along with an independent IP data stream. The SafeTLink will compliment Carlson Wireless’ existing Trailblazer™ and EB-4.9™ public safety band products.

The SafeTLink is unique in the 4.9 GHz wireless T1 radio marketplace in two significant ways. First, it incorporates Carlson Wireless’s exclusive TrueTDM™ technology with IP. TrueTDM allows for fully synchronous Time Division Multiplexed fixed-latency of less than 4 milliseconds. This provides perfect wireline quality for voice (POTS) as well as 4-wire/E&M signaling. Second, SafeTLink operates in the lower and upper 1 MHz channels of the 4.9 GHz public safety band leaving the 5 MHz channels available for other purposes such as incident area networks, multipoint systems and mobile uses.

“We have some innovative customers that are using the SafeTLink to co-locate 4.9 GHz radios for complete 4.9 GHz systems,” said Bill McBride, project engineer at Carlson Wireless. “Because it uses the outer edges of the frequency band, SafeTLink leaves them plenty of room for other 4.9 GHz wireless applications such as 4.9 GHz WiFi hot spots where their mobile police car units down- and upload information to and from their command center and backhauling video surveillance data."

Another feature that has made the SafeTLink radios so popular is their ability to be reconfigured while in actual use. T1 capacity may be deactivated timeslot by timeslot, with the over-the-air bandwidth automatically reassigned to the IP data channel allowing for smooth migration away from today’s analog voice/T1 (TDM) world and tomorrow’s Voice over IP/Radio over IP environment.

Upon the acquisition of the SafeTLink Carlson Wireless engineers made immediate improvements to both the hardware and software, which included configuring the radio for indoor rackmount applications building on the product’s already robust reputation. “The SafeTLink is a great public safety radio product,” said Jim Carlson, CEO of Carlson Wireless. “It is a perfect fit to complement our 4.9 GHz public safety product line.”