TCCA Releases Study on Mission Critical Mobile Broadband Services
The TETRA and Critical Communications Association (TCCA) today announced the release of a new study: A discussion on the use of commercial and dedicated networks for delivering Mission Critical Mobile Broadband Services.
Public Safety organisations in Europe and the rest of the world currently provide mission critical mobile radio communication services to police officers, ambulance crews, fire and rescue personnel and others using dedicated radio networks. These specialised networks are based on TETRA, Project 25 or Tetrapol radio communications standards. Such standards provide excellent voice communication but have limited data capabilities. However, there is an increasing need for high speed data communications for mobile staff to supplement these voice services.
Typical applications include the transmission of incident details, images and video clips to staff, whether on the street or in vehicles. Internet access, email and social media are also becoming important as well as accessing back office databases as information sources and for report filing.
Commercial Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) already offer high speed data access to businesses and the public either direct to mobile phones or to personal computers. Commercial MNOs have the ability to deliver mobile broadband to Public Safety services as well. Indeed, many Public Safety organisations are already taking advantage of this capability but only for non mission critical applications. Such traffic will be carried by a ‘best efforts’ commercial service. However, for safety critical applications such as despatching ambulances, passing details of terrorist suspects and dealing with major incidents, it is essential that networks are employed that are suited to mission critical communication.
Until such time as 4G and 5G networks are proven to be truly Mission Critical, today's voice networks will be the only mission critical service available.
This new paper has been written to assist Government organisations and those responsible for Public Safety mobile communications, to consider the most appropriate solution for delivering such capabilities.
Issues addressed include spectrum, security, speed of roll out, political influences and cost.