Fukuoka, October 31, 2013

The TCCA has today signed the 3GPP Partnership Agreement, the formal document that means that the Association is now a Partner in 3GPP. Phil Kidner, the TCCA Chief Executive, described the role of the TETRA and Critical Communications Association in representing TETRA, the technology that - along with P25 in North America – dominates the critical communications market worldwide.

Phil Kidner introduced Tony Gray, Chairman of the TCCA Critical Communications Broadband Group (CCBG). The group is working to guide the critical communications community towards a "commitment to a common mobile broadband technology solution – based on LTE". Mr. Gray also emphasised the importance of a parallel effort in discussions with regulators and National Authorities to ensure the availability of appropriate and harmonized spectrum for deployment of Critical Communications LTE networks.

The CCBG will be the point-of-contact for 3GPP, and Mr. Gray gave an outline of how the group is focused on the identification of fundamental features for group working, direct mode, reliance and security and on guaranteeing critical speech services over all-IP systems. The CCBG has recently initiated a new Standards Coordination Umbrella Group, to facilitate coordination and collaboration between stakeholder groups globally in the preparation of use cases and requirements so that they can be presented to 3GPP in a coordinated way.

September 2, 2013

LTE is set to offer increased interoperability between critical communications systems and ubiquitous networks based on 3GPP specifications, without compromising on the highest standards necessary for the secure operation of mission critical voice and data services.

Several new features are being worked on in 3GPP, which has led to a high degree of participation from public safety groups and now sees the TETRA and Critical Communications Association (TCCA) being approved as the latest Market Representation Partner in 3GPP.

At the detailed level, the TCCA's Critical Communications Broadband Group will work closely with 3GPP, on Spectrum, Architecture, User requirements and on strategic case studies.

The TCCA has set out a plan for its members service evolution, for data and voice for LTE, with four sequential steps identified:

1. Upgrade existing Mission Critical V+D services until LTE readiness & maturity
2. Uptake of Non Mission Critical data with commercial LTE
3. Build Mission Critical Data LTE networks
4. Migrate Mission Critical Voice

In his proposal to 3GPP, Phil Kidner, the TCCA Chief Executive promised that "The Association will bring a European and global input to 3GPP for critical communications".

The formal signing of the 3GPP Partnership Agreement will take place at the next meeting of the Partners, in Fukuoka, Japan on the 30th October.

3GPP Contact for this story: Kevin Flynn, 3GPP Marketing and Communications Officer.

See Also:

• The 3GPP White paper "Delivering Public Safety Communications with LTE"
• The work of the TCCA Critical Communications Broadband Group; www.tandcca.com

Features / Studies

(As at 1/Feb/14, For the latest Features see: The Work Plan. )

UID	Name	Acronym	Resource	New TS_TR
	Release 11	-	-
550012	Public Safety Broadband High Power UE for Band 14 for Region 2		RAN4,RAN5	TR 36.837
	Release 12	-	-
530044	Study on Proximity-based Services	FS_ProSe	SA1	22.803
560020	Group Communication System Enablers for LTE	GCSE_LTE	SA1,SA2,SA3	TS 22.468, TR 23.768, TR 33.8xy
580059	Proximity-based Services	ProSe	SA1,SA2,SA3	TR 23.703, TS 23.303, TR 33.833
580038	Study on LTE Device to Device Proximity Services - Radio Aspects	FS_LTE_D2D_Prox	RAN1,RAN2,RAN3,RAN4	LTE 36.843
610028	Study on Group Communication for LTE	FS_LTE_GC	RAN2,RAN3	LTE 36.868

About the TCCA

"The TCCA represents TETRA, the most successful mission critical communications voice and narrowband data mobile standard in the world. Now available with TEDS supporting wideband data, we support the further development of the standard and promote its increasing adoption by professional users in a growing number of market sectors across all continents. For critical broadband data communications, we are driving the development of common global mobile standards."

http://www.tandcca.com