Benefits and disadvantages of PoC radios

A PoC radio uses a data network — a SIM card or Wi-Fi — for PTT. It does not replace UHF or VHF on the site. It solves the call when the local repeater no longer reaches.

Palo Security supplies PoC radios. The lines include Hytera, Inrico, ICOM, Caltta and Kirisun. Quantity and the service are set in the quote. This article sets out what PoC gains and what it costs on the ground.

Benefits

• Range: the call continues while data is up, between distant posts or a post in the field.
• One group across several sites, set in the service, without reprogramming the channel of each site.
• The same set can use a SIM where mobile coverage exists and Wi-Fi where Starlink or the site network is available.
• It does not depend on a UHF or VHF repeater on the path to the control room.
• It does not use the site frequency channel. UHF or VHF authorisation stays with two-way, when that system exists.
• PTT comes out of the speaker: nobody has to answer as on a phone.
• The button is on the radio. A program on a phone screen is not the same request.
• Account and Wi-Fi programming is done on a computer; the PoC Manager article covers the Hytera case.

Disadvantages

• With no data there is no PTT. If mobile coverage drops and there is no Wi-Fi, the radio goes silent.
• The PoC service is ongoing: account, server and data. It is not a local channel you switch on and forget.
• PTT can lag a little against UHF or VHF on the same site, because the audio travels over the internet.
• Inside concrete, a basement or a mine, the SIM can fail like a phone. Site Wi-Fi or UHF on the site still matter.
• A PoC set does not talk on the patrol UHF or VHF channel. If reception is on UHF, PoC does not join that conversation. Joining the two groups, if the operation asks for it, closes in the quote — this article does not invent the box.
• A Starlink antenna supplies Wi-Fi at the point where it is installed. Outside that Wi-Fi, the radio needs a SIM again.

When it is still worth it

• The control room is in another district and the patrol must hear it.
• There are several sites and one call group.
• The site has Starlink or stable mobile coverage at the workplace.
• UHF or VHF stay on the site; PoC takes the long link.

If the site is one compound, with a repeater, and nobody talks outside the wall, two-way radio is enough. The two-way vs PoC article helps close the system; the UHF and VHF article closes the band. Tell us the number of radios, the site and whether a PoC account already exists. We prepare the quote.