Ericsson to acquire Genaker to strengthen Mission Critical Push-to-talk (MCPTT) offering
Ericsson has signed an agreement to acquire 100 percent of the shares in Genaker, a provider of Mission Critical Push-to-talk (MC-PTT) solutions, based in Barcelona, Spain. The acquisition strengthens Ericsson’s MC-PTT offering as the mission critical communications and private network market is going through a significant technology shift. Traditionally, public safety communications have relied on private land mobile radio (LMR) networks limited to simple push-to-talk (“walkie talkie”) functionality. With increasing demand for exchange of other types of data, such as pictures and videos, the legacy LMR networks need to be replaced, and cellular networks have proven to be the best fit for existing and emerging requirements. Ericsson has been a pioneer in Mission Critical Push-to-talk over 3GPP technology and has been driving the standardization from the start in 3GPP release 12. Ericsson is now taking the next step by investing in the MC-PTT applications and clients of Genaker. The acquisition is a building block in Ericsson’s focus on strengthening service providers’ capabilities towards mission critical users.
With the ongoing transformation of public safety communications, new opportunities arise for both telecom service providers and traditional MC-PTT operators. Ericsson’s MC-PTT solution was recently selected by Southern Linc, a U.S. communications service provider, who will provide the solution to its utility and public sector entity customers, as well as selected businesses.
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