November 2018 – Membership of the Australasian TETRA and Critical Communications Forum (ATCCF) unanimously supported name change of the ATCCF to Australasian Critical Communications Forum (ACCF) based on updated charter to support all global open standards that include mission and business critical digital Land Mobile Radio (LMR) standards TETRA, P25, DMR and the 3GPP mission critical Broadband standards (LTE/4G and 5G).

The Australasian Critical Communications Forum (ACCF), formerly the Australasian TETRA and Critical Communications Forum is a local chapter, based in Australia, of the The international Critical Communications Forum (TCCA). Along with the TCCA the ACCF continues to advocate on behalf of mission and business critical stakeholders in respect to the development and establishment of global open/non-proprietary LMR technology standards to ensure that stakeholder and professional user requirements are adequately addressed.

The TCCA with over 140 member organizations globally comprising of governments, vendors, integrators, telecom operators and users has been primarily responsible driving the ETSI TETRA open standard including interoperability compliance testing of manufacturers thereby establishing a multi-vendor ecosystem. The TCCA participates in the MCPTT Plugtests/interoperability testing of critical Broadband (LTE 4G/5G) with ETSI and 3GPP members. The Global Certification Forum (GCF) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with TCCA in 2018 that pledged to advance developments and certification in areas related to 3GPP mission critical services.

Mission Critical TETRA Technology.
TETRA digital trunked mobile radio for voice and data has found acceptance internationally. TETRA’s global success is mainly due to compliance to an open standard of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and users’ needs for advanced, reliable, secure enhanced digital voice and data product & services beyond the capabilities of previous and alternate proprietary technologies. The ETSI TETRA standard received significant input from the various manufacturers and prospective users by way of the original international TETRA Association now known as “The Critical Communication Association” TCCA).

Underlining the continued widespread implementation and projected market growth and strenght of the TETRA technology ETSI begins work in June 2019 on the next generation of TETRA security features. This will ensure the standard remains fully protected into the future against the rising levels of threats from cyber criminals. The enhancements will include additional encryption algorithms designed to resist cryptanalysis into the 2030s and beyond.

Critical Broadband (LTE/4G/5G) Technology
Significant TCCA support has been dedicated to global efforts to include mission critical features within the LTE Broadband standards through the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and the TCCA is a 3GPP Marketing Representation Partner (MRP). Internationally the 3GPP consortium is making progress with the releases of standardised mission critical Broadband technology including interoperability testing where the TCCA plays an active role through its Critical Communications Broadband Group (CCBG) and the Broadband Industry group (BIG).

The TCCA and the ACCF main goals are to drive the development and operation of critical mobile and broadband standards and solutions for public safety and all other critical communications users with a focus on standardised critical broadband and the transition from Narrowband critical technologies into one common 3GPP standard for critical Broadband solutions (LTE/4G and 5G).

TCCA collaborates with the Mission Critical Open Platform (MCOP) which is a collaborative project with the financial assistance award 70NANB17H151 from U.S. Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology through the Public Safety Innovation Acceleration Program (PSIAP). MCOP aims at facing the challenges of the new MCPTT complex ecosystem through the definition, development and validation of a MCPTT UE Open Platform (MCOP) that identifies neat interfaces between the different technologies in the UEs, reduces the integration efforts and removes the entry barriers.

Critical Communications World (CCW) events are conferences and exhibitions organised by The Critical Communications Association (TCCA) and are the largest and most influential events of its kind in the critical communications sector, a reputation which has been built over the course of its 20-year-plus history. CCW is the global showcase event for the critical communications sector, attracting thousands of attendees on an annual basis. Following on from 2018’s hugely successful show in Berlin, numbers of this year’s event in Kuala Lumpur in June 2019  continued to be overwhelmingly positive, registering one of the event’s highest turn-outs when taking place in the Far East. This year has once again seen CCW bring together the global critical communications community to share best practice and new ideas for the benefit of all. The 2020 CCW event will be held in Madrid, Spain.

• Promote global open standards which include digital LMR standard TETRA and DMR, P25 and all the 3GPP/ETSI broadband and mission critical BB standards ( LTE/4G and 5G), and viable solutions to address current and future needs of mission critical radio communications users
• Support the future transition from Narrowband critical technologies into one common 3GPP standard critical broadband solution
• Facilitate development of specific voice and data applications for open standard Narrowband and Broadband technologies for the mission critical user
• Representations to the regulating bodies to secure radio frequency spectrum for digital narrowband open standard LMR  networks and mission critical Broadband
• Facilitate the exchange of information digital LMR standard TETRA and DMR, P25 and all the 3GPP/ETSI broadband and mission critical BB standards ( LTE/4G and 5G) through active marketing, workshops, exhibitions and industry presentations
• Represent regional interests in the evolution of digital LMR standard TETRA and DMR, P25 and all the 3GPP/ETSI broadband and mission critical BB standards ( LTE/4g and 5G) for professional users
• Support the TCCA and 3GPP in Australasia

• The ACCF provides local input and feedback on its updated charter to support all global open standards which continues to include digital LMR standard TETRA but now also DMR, P25 and all the 3GPP/ETSI broadband and mission critical BB standards ( LTE/4Gand 5G) through the international TCCA and ETSI
• Allows a path of communication of specific user requirements regarding desirable hardware and software features, and functionality between users and manufacturers
• Recognition as a vendor or user supporting all global open standards which include digital LMR standard TETRA but also DMR, P25 and all the 3GPP/ETSI broadband and mission critical BB standards ( LTE/4Gand 5G) and  value added applications and services meeting professional stakeholder requirements
• Facilitate information between ACCF members locally and TCCA members globally
• Access to the various TCCA worksgroups i.e Broadband Industry Group, Critical Communications Broadband Group, Technical Forum, TETRA Industry Group, Transport Group, SCADA Smartgrid and Telemetry Group, and others (see TCCA website www.tcca.info)

Join us – and help shape the future of critical communications. As a member you will join other like minded organisations globally whose success is dependent upon critical communications – you can help secure that success.