CCR  |   Messaging  |  2020-10-07

Critical Messaging Association Reconnects with New Digital Platform and Whitepapers on Communication in Critical Situations

Source: The Critical Communications Review | Gert Jan Wolf editor

The General Assembly of the worldwide Critical Messaging Association decided on 7 November 2019, before the coronavirus crisis, to promote and inform about alternative and hybrid transmission routes via special mobile communication networks.

Unforeseen developments, unpredictable communication, changes in behaviours: The Arlington Report on the communication on 11 September 2001, the report on the hearings of the City of London after the events referred to as ‘the London bombings’ in 2007, the lessons from the 2016 terrorist attacks in Brussels. Communication while working from home and quarantining, remote alerting in the coronavirus era – all of these examples underscore the fact that mobile phones alone cannot be the only solution for communication in extreme situations.

Cellular mobile phone networks and the development towards 5G also pose additional challenges. And if they exist ‘only’ in the network infrastructure to be shared due to high costs because of the high number of required sites. An independent alternative mobile infrastructure – even one with other or limited features – is extremely important. We have to stop dreaming.

The General Assembly of the worldwide Critical Messaging Association decided on 7 November 2019, before the coronavirus crisis, to promote and inform about alternative and hybrid transmission routes via special mobile communication networks.

During the General Assembly, the CMA set up working groups. Especially, working Group 3 dealt with basic documents and white papers on communication in critical situations. The CMA announced that the first documents, with the contribution from industry leaders from France, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands are now ready.

Two of the documents are titled:
1 Keep it easy – it should work: Resisting the trend of making mobile solutions even more complicated and complex
2 Exploring the potential of the three radio technologies for alerting: Investigating three approaches to alerting relief workers.

With the publication of these and other articles, the new website of the CMA organisation was launched in the course of daily operations. Initially focused on content delivery, more documents are gradually being added. The next release will also include a stronger visualisation, despite the fact that in the technical environment, the one thing that matters most: facts and learning from the history of critical events.

The new website can be accessed at www.critmsg.org.

In addition to the Services area, where the above documents are highlighted among others, the Events area also deserves particular attention. It contains many of the presentations from recent CMA Summits that were held both online and on site.