Airbus wants to create broadband virtual mobile operator for public safety in Mexico

The project provides certainty for the country’s future of mission-critical communication for both public safety and operation of the 911 emergency

Elancourt, 23 June 2017 – Airbus, technology supplier for Mexico’s nationwide mission-critical Tetrapol network IRIS (Red Nacional de Radiocomunicación de Misión Crítica Tetrapol), wants to create the first broadband virtual mobile operator for public safety in Mexico. Airbus selected Nokia as technology partner. The liaison aims at offering Secure Mobile Virtual Network Operator (Secure MVNO) solutions for the future shared network. Secure MVNO allows trusted mobile access to broadband operators. As a result, fire fighters and police officers can use multimedia applications on their radios.

Fred Gallart, Head of Sales & Program Delivery Latin America of Secure Land Communications at Airbus, says: “This strategic partnership will be very beneficial for public safety entities at all three levels of government which are already using Mexico’s Red Nacional de Radiocomunicación de Misión Crítica Tetrapol.” This cooperation with Nokia also ensures that the governments’ cumulative investments in Tetrapol over the past 17 years keep their value by gradually migrating towards LTE.

Airbus has a wealth of experience in the field of radio communications for public safety and civil protection in the country. Currently, the Red Nacional de Radiocomunicación de Misión Crítica Tetrapol, better known as the IRIS network, provides an encrypted radiocommunications service to more than 200,000 users, including the federal police, the decentralised administrative agency for prevention and social rehabilitation (OADPRS), the 32 states of the Mexican Republic and around 200 municipalities.

“We are very pleased to have been chosen as Airbus SLC’s technology partner for its future service as S-MVNO. Nokia will provide a complete end-to-end solution for public safety, with specialized services such as control room deployment, security, device management and tactical cell deployment. With the national LTE coverage and the next generation Core Network for the shared network, provided by Nokia, Airbus SLC will become the first MVNO specializing in security (S-MVNO),”says Marcelo Entreconti, Head of Sales at Nokia for Global Enterprises and Public Sector in Latin America. This solution, deployed on the shared network in Mexico, would make Airbus the first mobile virtual broadband operator in the country specialising in public safety broadband services (Secure MVNO).

The IRIS network covers 85 per cent of the population, 75 per cent of roads and 50 per cent of Mexico’s national territory. The coverage provided by the national IRIS network is one of the most extensive in the country, where in some areas it exceeds the coverage of the major mobile networks.

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