Bath-based Software Radio Technology has raised £5m for its next generation TETRA mobile radio and marine systems.

SRT, formed from the buyout of a Securicor technology division in 2002 and floated on the AIM stock exchange in 2005, now concentrates on low-cost automatic identification system (AIS) technology for shipping and TETRA standard for private mobile radio (PMR).

A four-year development in each area is now coming to market, and the money is for the developing the next generation of both technologies. The TETRA design, including a chipset, will reduce the cost of a TETRA radio or personal digital assistant by 80 per cent, while the AIS design could run entirely in software on a digital signal processor to dramatically reduce the cost.

“Each time we re-start the project with new notebooks and a clean piece of paper,” said Simon Tucker, CEO of SRT.

After delays at the end of last year, the firm has started supplying its TETRA reference design to eight of the world’s 11 handset makers, and is the only radio technology supplier to the Chinese military and to the Beijing Olympics, said Tucker. It is now also supplying a full OEM handset design. It is looking eventually to supply other handset makers such as Motorola with the chipset.

The company is splitting into two divisions, SRT Marine and SRT PMR, to focus on the two areas, and is looking at entering the avionics business well, said Tucker.