Portugal Pours €26M into SIRESP First-Responder Radios, Delays 5G Upgrade

The Portugal Council of Ministers has earmarked another €26 million for SIRESP, a move that keeps the country’s ageing emergency-radio network alive for at least one more year but also delays the arrival of a promised replacement.

Why This Matters

• €26 million comes straight from general taxation; it is the equivalent of the annual payroll of a mid-size public hospital.

• The money underwrites the only radio system that connects firefighters, PSP and GNR during wildfires, floods and stadium events.

• Recurrent network blackouts, most recently during Storm Kristin, have reignited debate about investing in a modern platform instead.

A Lifeline on the Books—but Still on Trial

SIRESP S.A., now fully owned by the Portuguese State, runs the Integrated Emergency and Security Radio Network that links more than 50,000 first responders. Since 2019 the company has survived on an annual compensatory indemnity—€26 million being the established figure. Officials inside the Ministry of Internal Administration (MAI) insist the payment is “non-negotiable” because it covers routine maintenance, spectrum fees and the leasing of 640 base stations scattered from Viana do Castelo to Faro.

What Went Wrong in Leiria

When Storm Kristin ripped through the Centre Region this January, the network crashed for up to 30 hours around Batalha. Civil-protection chiefs rolled in mobile masts, yet mayors complained they had to rely on WhatsApp to coordinate sand-bagging crews. The episode echoed prior failures during the 2017 wildfires, prompting telecom experts to brand SIRESP “technologically obsolete”.

Price Tag vs. Performance

Between 2021-2025 the Treasury wired roughly €100 million to SIRESP S.A.

A parallel five-year servicing contract, awarded in 2023 to firms such as Altice Labs and Motorola, costs another €12.8 million per annum.

For comparison, the State has set aside €37 million for all volunteer fire brigades in 2026—barely 40 % more than one year of SIRESP upkeep.

Critics like columnist Miguel Sousa Tavares call it “the most ruinous deal the Republic ever signed,” while union leaders for PSP and GNR argue that money should flow into pay rises and body-worn cameras.

Government’s Plan B—Still on Paper

Last spring Lisbon froze a proposal to dissolve SIRESP S.A. after feasibility studies showed that building a 4G/LTE mission-critical network from scratch would cost at least €450 million and take four years. A new task-force, led by the National Civil Protection Authority, is drafting a phased migration so that emergency crews can roam onto commercial 5G towers with encrypted handsets by 2028. Until then, officials acknowledge that “temporary injections” such as the current €26 million remain unavoidable.

What This Means for Residents

• Personal safety: Expect the existing push-to-talk radios to remain the backbone of firefighting and medical dispatch through another wildfire season. Any glitches could slow first-responder arrival times.

• Tax burden: The line item works out to roughly €2.50 per taxpayer this year. While not huge individually, it competes with local spending on ambulances, flood defences and civil-protection drills.

• Mobile phone fallback: Authorities urge citizens in remote areas to keep smartphones charged and to sign up for the Cell Broadcast early-warning system, rolled out nationally last month, as redundancy against SIRESP outages.

The Bottom Line for Investors and Tech Firms

For companies in Portugal’s telecom supply chain, the never-ending SIRESP debate signals a coming public tender bonanza. Vendors of ruggedised 5G routers, satellite backhaul and cybersecurity tools are already lobbying MAI. Conversely, budget uncertainty means any large-scale procurement could slip past the next legislative cycle, leaving the legacy network—and its €26 million lifeline—intact for longer than planned.