LTE  |  2021-05-27

ASTRID Prepares for Blue Light Mobile Version III

Source: The Critical Communications Review | Gert Jan Wolf editor

Now as technology evolves and the third version of Blue Light Mobile is currently being prepared and aims to further improve the performance of the service.

At its launch in 2014, the ASTRID Blue Light Mobile priority mobile telephony service (using the local commercial mobile networks) consisted of a fast data transmission service specifically for the emergency and security services in Belgium. The Blue Light Mobile services allows access to the 3 mobile networks, with national roaming.

As a result of the terrorists attacks in Belgium in 2016, a new version of Blue Light Mobile (BLM II) was rolled out, that now also included a voice service (telephony) and priority access with pre-emption (only on the network of Proximus), in particular for the key functions of the emergency plans. In concrete terms, this now enables crisis managers to have priority on the network and to remain accessible at all times, even when the mobile network becomes congested.

Now as technology evolves and the third version of Blue Light Mobile is currently being prepared and aims to further improve the performance of the service, both on a technical level (control of encryption, roaming, pre-emption) and on an administrative level (billing, support, SLA , etc.). ASTRID announced that the specifications for ASTRID BLue Light Mobile III will be published in the course of 2021.