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PARTNER FOCUS

CRITICAL COMMS -

MAKING A CONTROLLED

LEAP TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Tero Pesonen is chair of TCCA’s Critical Communications Broadband Group (CCBG) and is
vice-chair of TCCA’s Board, representing Finnish operator Erillisverkot. This year Tero marks
25 years in the critical communications industry. In this article he considers the impact
3GPP has had on the sector and looks to the future.

The critical communications operational model is moving That said, it is difficult to overstate the importance of getting
steadily towards information-centric operations, via its public safety’s move to 5G right, coming from a variety of
commitment to 3GPP based global standards as the avenue migration paths – With many regions still in early planning
to introduce video and other high speed data services. the move from narrowband such as TETRA or P25 networks to
4G LTE is the initial step on a long journey of continuous 3GPP broadband services.
improvements. In parallel, the early public safety adopters such as the USA,
UK, South Korea, France and Finland are rapidly gaining
It is the first technology that can be used in large scale in a practical experience on the transition highlighting in the short
shared fashion with our user community. It also provides the term the need for Mission Critical Services (MCX) standards
best territorial coverage for the current decade and beyond conformance towards interoperability certification . This
– An important factor as in critical communications keeping will provide benefit for all critical communications sectors
connected is often a lifeline. including railways, utilities, mining and alike.

New Radio – NR – and the entire 5G and 5G Advanced In the medium timeframe, feedback from the field is
promise more connectivity. Examples include via Non- channelled back to standardisation. For the long term, the
Terrestrial-Networks (i.e. satellite), capabilities critical communications sector looks forward to being involved
for positioning and perhaps a solution for the device-to- in 6G development from the early stages. Only by participating
device communications challenge with Proximity in the advances in technology can innovations be brought to
Services over Sidelink. life to serve the safety of the societies.

The challenge of ‘one size fits all’ Time to reflect

3GPP has historically been perceived as an organisation I recently turned fifty, so I have spent half of my life working in
driving commercial mobile operator interests to enable the field of critical communications. It has an integral role in
ever increasing revenue streams from the consumers. my life. Working in a segment where, at least indirectly, we are
However, since TCCA, together with other critical contributing to saving lives and keeping societies safe makes
communications stakeholders, particularly public safety – me very proud. The technical challenges of the past twenty-
joined 3GPP, there has been tremendous willingness to co- five years have taken place in a demanding environment. In
operate and jointly seek solutions that can accommodate my early career it was about digitalising communications and
the needs of critical users. introducing features such as narrowband messaging services,
whilst building a global multi-vendor interoperable ecosystem.
A big part of this drive was the founding of 3GPP’s SA6 Now, it is about making a controlled leap to the next level of
working group to address Mission Critical and other operations with broadband enabled AI and XR. This has to
application-related requirements. be done without losing the benefits of open standards and
the amazing spirit of cooperation that exists in the critical
Now, further verticals are seeking 3GPP support for communications community.
their sectors’ needs. To enable all stakeholders to be
concurrently successful, we need to examine new use cases I look forward to meeting 3GPP and partner colleagues at
and explore the possibilities to develop services that stretch the TCCA’s Critical Communications World event in Helsinki
over many verticals, including critical communications. in May 2023.
Only in this way can sufficient economics of scale be
reached to justify investment both in the standardisation
as well as subsequently into products.
https://tcca.info/

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