What are the benefits of digital as opposed to analogue radios?

• Digital radios offer greater coverage and clearer audio quality than analogue radios, with no background noise due to noise cancelling capabilities – even in very noisy environments.
• Due to the way digital radios send their messages it is possible for a whole range of data to be sent including text and email, not possible with analogue radios.
• Digital radios also have many standard functions such as individual calling, lone worker and GPS, which analogue technology does not have.
• Digital two-way radios provide a more secure connection than analogue without the loss in voice quality that analogue scrambling can cause.
• Digital equipment works in both analogue and digital mode. The addition of digital radios to existing analogue systems allows progressive migration to a full digital system. This allows two-way radios to be upgraded to digital whilst preserving the investment into analogue two-way radios.
• All digital radios enable a 30-50 percent longer battery life than traditional analog radios because the digital radio transmitter is not constantly on.
• Digital radios now offer indoor and outdoor GPS functionality at a standard far superior to that available on analogue technology.
• Digital radios are waterproof as standard (although it is advisable to check this).
• The cost to purchase or hire digital two way radios is now about the same as the cost of analogue technology.