Organisations that ignore the digital revolution are in danger of squandering their economic resources, according to a Britain-based mobile communications specialist. Simoco International group managing director John Drake said there was global movement towards a wireless communications system that could transfer vast amounts of data using radio frequency. He said Terrestrial Trunked Radio (Tetra) - the international standard for digital mobile radio communications - could offer improved voice quality, multimedia data transfer, higher data transfer speeds and security. He said the Tetra standard was an open system - as opposed to a closed, proprietary one - and was faster and more reliable than technologies such as GSM, or global system for mobile communications. The traditional target market for the Tetra system has been the emergency services, utilities, and security, military, construction and other organisations that need instant communication access. 'It's press to talk, not press to dial,' Mr Drake said. 'A call can be set up in less than 0.3 seconds.' He said a simple system to cover Hong Kong would cost about $50 million and would use considerably fewer transmitters than a GSM network. 'You can start small and build up, which is why initial investment is low compared to other systems.' Mr Drake said a lack of product knowledge in Asia had been a market barrier, however, and Hong Kong had traditionally been an early adaptor of new technology. Of the $35 billion in quotes that equipment and service provider Simoco has issued globally, about $300 million was for Hong Kong and the mainland. Simoco's Tetra products offer video images on the move, simultaneous voice and data transmission, automatic vehicle location, mobile Internet connection and access to a central database.