Collaboration with TCCA supports next generation of MCS products and services

Source: GCF / TCCA Press release. 

The Global Certification Forum (GCF) today announced that it is adding 3GPP-based Mission Critical Services (MCS) to its certification programme, also referred to as MCX.

MCS and critical communications provide essential voice and data connectivity to first responders, public safety services, transportation sectors, and more. The next generation of MCS, also referred as Broadband MCS, are being delivered over LTE cellular networks and evolving towards 5G, thus providing the services required for emergency response.

Lars Nielsen, CEO at GCF, said: “This new MCS certification follows a multi-year collaboration between GCF and TCCA, and the members of both organisations at Mission Critical Services Work Stream. For the first time, MCS product vendors can demonstrate conformance of different MCS clients and servers based on global standards maintained by 3GPP.”

Kevin Graham, CEO at TCCA, said: “Following several years of work from members of TCCA and GCF, we now have an agreement, at industry level, on how to prove compliance of mission critical services to the market – based on standards, with the highest quality requirements.”

With this new certification, MCS operators and service providers can be sure of the quality and compliance of devices and services. This will facilitate the development of an ecosystem of MC services with multiple interoperable providers.

The MCS certification is open to device manufacturers and MCS client vendors who are already active in GCF or are joining the organization. The certification was subject to activation of WI-288 (Mission Critical Push-to-Talk) in a new GCF-CC version (Conformance Criteria), after the GCF Conformance Agreement Group meeting on June 4, 2024.

Beyond this initial announcement, the certification scope for mission critical services will continue evolving to support additional releases (such as 3GPP Rel.15) and standards-based services such as MCData and MCVideo.

Further information on GCF, TCCA and MCS is available in the article “How broadband mission critical device certification is being led by GCF and TCCA,” here at GCF’s website.

About GCF

For 25 years the Global Certification Forum (GCF) has been leading the global ecosystem facilitating interoperable devices, networks, and services, enabling reliable and secure wireless communications. GCF’s solutions cover 5G NR, LTE, Cellular IoT (NB-IoT and eMTC), eSIM and legacy technologies. GCF has over 350 members, including major and smaller operators and service providers, all major device and IoT manufacturers, and the test industry, working together with key industry partners on certification programmes demanded by the market. www.globalcertificationforum.org

About TCCA

On behalf of its members, TCCA supports all standard mobile critical communications technologies and complementary applications. Our 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. We drive the development of common global mobile standards for critical broadband and maintain and enhance the TETRA Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) standard. TCCA is the 3GPP Market Representation Partner for critical communications and our members actively contribute in 3GPP working groups. TCCA supports the ETSI MCX Plugtests™, and is a member of the MCS-TaaSting project.

To find out more, please visit https://www.tcca.info/ and https://www.critical-communications-world.com/