LTE  |  2016-09-05

ASTRID Requests Guaranteed Access and Priority for Bluelight Mobile

Source: The Critical Communications Review | Gert Jan Wolf editor

In order to secure communications for its users on Bluelight Mobile, the operator of the Belgian Emergency Services started negotiations with the national mobile networks and BIPT, the Belgian Telecom Agency.

The ASTRID mobile data service (Bluelight Mobile), that supports the Belgian Emergency Services in their day-to-day operations, uses the three national mobile networks.

All of those networks were fully loaded on the day of the attacks in Brussels.

The Proximus network offers ASTRID, a reserved bandwidth, even at the time the network is saturated, however ASTRID writes that access to the network is unfortunately no longer guaranteed.

Therefore ASTRID draws the conclusion: Bluelight Mobile adds value during a crisis situation. The emergency and security services should have guaranteed access and priority for both data and voice communications. Therefore ASTRID now started talks with the three operators and the BIPT (Belgian Telecom Agency) in order to secure their communications.