The government announced an extension for the deadline to deliver a study on revamping the national emergency communication network, SIRESP, without specifying a new date for completion. This decision was disclosed in a joint statement from the Ministry of Internal Administration and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing.
As outlined in the statement, a designated team met on Tuesday to begin working with their newly appointed coordinator. Their mission is to devise a solution that ensures a robust, reliable, resilient, technologically adequate, and fully interoperable communication system.
The coordinator, appointed a few days ago to lead the government-formed team from April 30 to produce a technical-strategic study for SIRESP replacement, was officially named via a decree in the official government gazette.
On May 2, it was announced that a technical and multi-sectoral working group had been established as of April 30. This group aims to develop, within a maximum of 90 days, a strategic technical study for the urgent replacement of the Integrated System of Emergency and Security Networks (SIRESP).
This initiative follows the failure of the state’s exclusive communication network for command, control, and coordination during the April 28 power blackout.
On July 24, a decree was published in the government gazette, signed by the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, and the Minister of Internal Administration, Maria Lúcia Amaral, appointing Carlos Leitão as the coordinator of the working group. He officially assumed his role on July 17.
The attached curriculum vitae reveals that Carlos Leitão, aged 63, holds a degree in Electronic Engineering, Telecommunications, and Computers from the Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa. He served as the technical director of SIRESP, SA from 2006 to 2024.
SIRESP, SA is the public company responsible for directing and coordinating the SIRESP network.
The team studying the urgent replacement of SIRESP includes representatives from various entities such as the Agency for Integrated Management of Rural Fires (AGIF), the National Communications Authority (ANACOM), the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority (ANEPC), the Armed Forces General Staff, the National Republican Guard (GNR), the Public Security Police (PSP), and the National Institute of Medical Emergency (INEM), among others.
The group’s tasks, according to the decree that established it, include analyzing the current SIRESP governance model, technological architecture, and infrastructure, presenting an alternative model, and incorporating a public alert component based on Cell Broadcast technology in the proposed solution.
