TCCA CCBG ADVANCES CRITICAL BROADBAND
- TCCA Critical Communications Broadband Group (CCBG) addresses commercial operator challenges for serving the critical communications market
- More than 55 organisations from around the world working together to advance critical broadband communications
- Finnish authorities and solution providers demonstrate live critical broadband capabilities
30 October 2017 – The 16th TCCA Critical Communications Broadband Group (CCBG) Plenary proved a resounding success. Taking place over three days in Espoo, Finland hosted by TCCA member Nokia, more than 55 organisations came together to drive the development of critical broadband. Key outcomes from the meeting are:
- Critical Communications community and MNOs benefit strongly from closer engagement
- Technology, the network environment, laws and regulations governing use of critical broadband and end user field operations all need to develop in parallel
- Many possibilities to harvest broadband benefits are already available today as demonstrated by the Finnish community
Participants included critical communications users, public safety and commercial operators, regulators, broadband equipment vendors, critical applications providers, consultants, and representatives of standardisation organisations.
The first day saw authorities and solution provider companies from the host country Finland demonstrate their success-in-co-operation, based on trust between agencies and critical communications services and applications. The shared VIRVE network as a continuous critical service has enabled the authorities to also utilise available commercial broadband data services as part of their daily operations. Solutions such as multi-access routers, local control to enable network slicing in 4G networks and connection-aware applications increase the criticality level in today’s business and consumer oriented commercial networks.
Best practices in on-going developments formed the program for the second day, as well as detailed discussion on critical communications standardisation and future priorities in 3GPP. The need for interoperability and conformance testing and certification was acknowledged, likewise the need to address laws and regulations that do not currently recognise mission critical mobile broadband opportunities.
The final day focused on operator related critical communications issues. The scene was set by Jarmo Vinkvist, CEO of the Finnish shared authority network VIRVE, and complemented by a focussed presentation on the planned UK Emergency Services Network (ESN). The CCBG Mobile Network Operator task force will take the points raised and move forward to further address the requirements of the commercial operator community for serving the critical communications market.
Supporting quotes:
Tero Pesonen, chair, CCBG: “This CCBG plenary showed on the one hand quite tangibly how advanced complementary broadband solutions can be taken into use today and on the other demonstrated the challenges ahead of us and how we can address them.”
Jarmo Vinkvist, CEO Suomen Virveverkko Oy, part of State Security Networks Group Finland: “It is very encouraging to see all the different stakeholders coming together to discuss and move forward matters of common interest. This is the way to achieve standardised interoperable solutions that meet our requirements.”
Tony Gray, Chief Executive, TCCA: “TCCA stands for open and standardised mobile critical communications technologies and complementary applications. We support collaborative working across the critical communications ecosystem to develop and drive the most effective solutions for all professional users. This CCBG plenary represents the core of our mission.”
Philippe Agard, chair, TCCA Broadband Industry Group (BIG) and Nokia employee: “From the broadband industry point of view it is vital to have open exchange of requirements as well as available and possible future solutions. With the inclusion of MNOs, we are on a good path to a wide critical communications broadband ecosystem”
About TCCA
TCCA leads the global development and promotion of standardised critical communications solutions. For more information please visit www.tcca.info
@tandcca
Contact:
editor@tcca.info
+ 44 77 66 33 32 77
About Critical Communications Finland
Critical Communications Finland is an initiative to share Finnish critical communications knowledge, experiences and best practises worldwide and embrace co-operation between nations, agencies and companies. For more information please visit www.criticalcommunicationsfinland.fi
@criticalcommsfi
Contact
info@criticalcommunicationsfinland.fi
+358 50 5447347
About State Security Networks Group Finland
State Security Networks Group Finland – Building security together
The task of the State Security Networks Group Finland is to secure the critical leadership of society and information society services in all circumstances. The State Security Networks Group Finland provides the organisations responsible for the security and functionality of the society with mission critical services, situational awareness services and services securing critical infrastructure. State Security Networks Ltd is a wholly state owned special purpose company. The Prime Minister’s Office is responsible for the ownership steering of the company. For more information please visit
www.erillisverkot.fi/en
Contact
viestinta@erillisverkot.fi