A hi-tech police radio system which is more than a year behind schedule is finally to be introduced at the end of this year.

Thames Valley Police's new Airwave radio system will be introduced from November. Officers in the Northern Oxfordshire police area and traffic officers will be among the first issued with the new handsets, followed by Oxford police in December. Southern Oxfordshire officers will receive Airwave in March.

Thames Valley Police will be among the first forces in the country to introduce the state-of-the-art digital radio service, supplied by mmO2, which it says will result in a more efficient and effective service for the public.

The new system will have far fewer signal blackspots, which place officers out of communication range, than with the obsolete system it replaces. The network will also be secure so criminals cannot eavesdrop on police with a radio scanner.

In August, Oxford officers were issued with mobile phones because Thames Valley Police decided it needed to streamline its crime recording procedures as a matter of urgency, and could not wait until Airwave was introduced.

Officers across Thames Valley were issued with mobiles at a cost of £400,000, so they could phone crime reports to the force's two new police inquiry centres, at Kidlington and Windsor.

Police signed a deal with mmO2 on August 6, stating Airwave was ready for service. The telecommunications company had originally been contracted to deliver it in June 2002, but there were delays installing the necessary telecommunications masts.

Assistant Chief Constable Michael Page said: "The introduction of Airwave is part of a wider plan to improve our service to the public.

"We will implement the new system gradually and the size of the project means it won't be without teething problems."

The Airwave system includes radio, mobile telephone and text services and a one-touch emergency button.