LTE  |  2017-12-04

PSCE Announces Availability of Transition Roadmap and Pre-Commercial Procurement Specification

Source: The Critical Communications Review | Gert Jan Wolf editor

The document refers to EU Interoperable Broadband Communication Applications and Technology for Public Safety.

The European Commission-funded BroadMap project ended earlier this year and marked a first step towards the establishment of a Pan-European Interoperable Broadband Public Safety Communication Network. This one-year project successfully delivered a core set of specifications to be used for procuring innovative solutions for broadband communication systems.

Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) organisations from 15 European countries (Member States and associated countries) worked together to establish a common roadmap for future evolution of EU PPDR radio communications and defined Candidate Solutions, Organisation Schemes, and ultimately produced Transition Roadmaps to shape the way towards the future of European emergency response operations to be more efficient through use of improved information exchange using smart broadband mobile technologies.

The partners are pleased to widely disseminate the final deliverable of BroadMap, which is now publicly available via this link: http://www.broadmap.eu/download-final-deliverable

The next step is the launch of a Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) to procure innovative solutions, to help maximise the economy of scale, and keep costs of technology low. A group of 11 buyers in 11 European countries, was established and answered to the European Commission SEC-04 call for proposals in August this year. Our ‘buyer’ partners represent ministries and their delegated agencies who are responsible for communication technology for public safety responders in their country. This core team is complemented by a further 48 first responder organisations covering the interests of 23 countries. These end using practitioners will be the key to the acceptance of the system delivered.

Should the European Commission be satisfied with our proposed approach, our goal for the PCP will become a reality in 2018, and we hope to bring together the entire telecommunication supply chain to enable European interoperable broadband for public safety. A pilot systems is expected in the timeframe of 2021, working to complement national plans for transition to broadband for public safety.

The availability of the final deliverable as well as the outcomes of Broadmap have been communicated to the participants of the 17th PSCE Conference that took place in Madrid on 28-29 November 2017.