Finland Announces Hybrid Plan for Public-Safety Broadband
The final step is dismantling the TETRA radio access once broadband service availability & reliability meets public safety’s requirements. In some areas, this might take place first when the narrowband network spare parts stock runs out.
The Finnish TETRA operator, VIRVE, has identified steps to eventually offer critical voice and broadband data that will be delivered by a government-controlled hybrid of dedicated and commercial Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks by 2030.
The VIRVE network operator belongs to the fully government-owned State Security Networks Group that has the task of securing the critical leadership of the Finnish society and the information society services in all conditions. The VIRVE network works well and the user satisfaction is high, but demand for high-speed broadband data services is evident.
“Shared critical communication structure with other governmental agencies is not only very economical, but also excellent for cooperation,” said General Ilkka Korkiamäki, chief information officer (CIO) of the Finnish Defense Forces and a State Security Networks board member.
A reasonable time window for the transition from TETRA to broadband begins with the availability of critical voice services over LTE early next decade and ends when the current TETRA network reaches its end of life — somewhere in the first half of the 2030s. Building out the nationwide TETRA coverage took several years, and it was even longer until all the separate analog systems were shut down. Thus, a long period of parallel networks with narrowband TETRA services and LTE broadband must be turned into an asset instead of a burden. Using the best of both technologies in five evolutionary steps can do this.