The Critical Communications Association TCCA), the global association for critical communications, released a road map to operational use of mission-critical broadband technology, saying current TETRA and other mission-critical narrowband operators will continue well after 2025.
Even with the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet) carrier planning to launch mission-critical push to talk (MCPTT) under Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 13 in the second half of this year, a full transition to mission-critical broadband will take years, said executives during a 10 January webinar on the topic.
With Releases 14 and 15 including many important features for the critical communications industry and the commercial market following with products about 18 months after a release is frozen, 2022 is likely the earliest a fully featured mission-critical broadband system might be deployed. In addition, interoperability testing will be necessary.
Jeppe Jepsen, TCCA director of broadband spectrum, said Long Term Evolution (LTE) device-to-device (D2D) communications, in particular, is an area that needs further work. He said Release 15 could be implemented by manufacturers and operators in early 2022. But implementation of standard functionality does not imply mission-critical operation. Commercial networks need to be hardened with adequate coverage, resilience, availability and security.
The TCCA webinar lays out an operational use timeline that includes about five years from planning to operational use at a minimum. Tero Pesonen, chair of the Critical Communications Broadband Group (CCBG), said an operator must account for planning, a tender process, contract negotiations and litigation, implementation, and testing.
Pesonen said that beyond public safety, other industries such as railways and utilities are likely to implement 3GPP technology as well.
A new TCCA white paper considers three phases — the current situation, the next three years to 2021, then from 2022 – 2030 — looking at the timetable of 3GPP releases and the issue of interoperability. The introduction of critical broadband will be different in each country. For example, the United States, United Kingdom and South Korea have been early planners, while other countries have renewed their TETRA and other narrowband technology to allow flexibility in their transition plans. Many are planning hybrid systems that will see narrowband and broadband technology run in parallel for several years.
The TCCA white paper is here. https://tcca.info/fm_file/2019-january_tcca_ppdr_roadmap-pdf/
The on-demand webiar is here. https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/5972873012904018434
About ACCF/TCCA in Australasia Region
The Australasian Critical Communications Forum (ACCF) is a chapter of The Critical Communications Association (TCCA) which represents all standard mobile critical communications technologies and complementary applications. TCCA is a market partner of 3GPP and ETSI global standardisation organisations. ACCF/TCCA members are drawn from end users, operators and industry across the globe. We believe in and promote the principle of open and competitive markets worldwide through the use of open standards and harmonised spectrum.
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. For more information please visit www.criticalcommsforum.com.au and https://tcca.info/