Rob Merrick has been recruited as Broadband Products business development manager.

Merrick's role will be to continue to grow Sepura's presence in the evolving LTE market space, supporting customers and partners in deploying Sepura's mission-critical broadband solutions.

His previous role was as Solutions Architect at the UK Home Office, where he played a leading role in the development of the Emergency Services Network Project.

Merrick has also represented the Home Office in discussions on 3GPP standards, helping to build the technical architecture for the MCX solution and working with end-users to ensure ESN meets their requirements.

He will bring this detailed understanding of users' requirements to Sepura as the company grows its presence in the emerging LTE market.

"Sepura has an outstanding reputation in the market for the quality of its products and its customer service," Merrick says.

"We are seeing across the world a gradual shift to users investigating and testing the opportunities presented by LTE, particularly as a hybrid solution maintaining TETRA for mission-critical voice communications.

"I have spent a considerable period of time with end-users over my career, understanding their needs and building fit for purpose solutions to answer these.

"There are significant opportunities in the market where LTE solutions can answer customers' operational needs by providing access to mission critical data in the field.

"Sepura are perfectly placed to respond to this need with the SCU3, and I look forward to supporting the company moving forwards in this area, Merrick adds.

"For Sepura it is vital to have the right resources available to support our regional teams and partners," Worldwide sales director Terence Ledger says.

"For our customers, it is vital to have access to knowledgeable, trusted teams that can support them.

"We are delighted to bring Rob on board, to make use of his extensive knowledge gained in roles around the world and to continue to ensure that our customers have best in class solutions to support them moving forwards.

"We look forward to Rob playing a crucial role in Sepura's presence in the critical communications market."