PSCE Begins BroadWay Public Safety Communications Broadband Network Prototype Development Phase 2
The 6th July 2020 marks the start of the Solution Prototype Phase (Phase 2) of the BroadWay PCP, with the signing of contracts by Astrid SA, the Lead Procurer of the BroadWay PCP and three successful consortia.
The three consortia are led by Airbus DS, Frequentis AG and Leonardo S.p.A. A total of 32 European companies are participating, including key mobile and satellite operators: PrioCom, Telefonica, Eutelsat, Proximus, T-Mobile, Telespazio and Vodaphone. Many SMEs are providing knowledge, innovative and expert security as well test and application skills.
For Phase 2, each consortium has been awarded €1.4M approximately and their aim is to develop BroadWay prototypes over the next 10 months, including an initial demonstration to the BroadWay Group of Procurers in November 2020. The final BroadWay prototypes will be tested and evaluated in Spring 2021. A subsequent competition will then be held to award a further €1.5M to each of the two remaining consortia, which will be tasked with deploying final TRL8 pilot systems by Spring 2022 for the third and final phase of the project (Pilot Phase).
The evaluation of the prototype solutions carried out by our Group of Procurers will be supported by the Practitioner Evaluation Team, which is a group of public safety responders representing all disciplines from across Europe and is led by the Bavarian Red Cross.
The BroadWay prototypes and pilots will give a real view on the technical possibility to realise operational mobility; the capability for public safety responders to access and share information wherever they are and wherever they need to, with assured confidence in the security, availability and continuity of their services as they are mobile. This provides European responders with new and fundamental mobile communication capability, upon which closer collaboration can be built towards the fight against crime and terrorism and to save more lives when disaster hits.
Work has already begun in recent months to prepare for BroadNet. BroadNet will procure and operate a live pan-European system, interconnecting national mobile broadband systems after the BroadWay PCP. Discussions are ongoing on how to structure future pan-European agreements necessary for effective pan-European governance of BroadNet. The BroadWay Group of Procurers will start up discussions across their national government departments for the support needed. Initial discussions have taken place with the European Commission and the European Investment Bank to explore possible financing options.
The BroadWay Group of Procurers includes 11 ministries or their delegated agency responsible for providing public safety communication capabilities in their country. They currently provide mobile communication services to 1.4 million responders across Europe. The countries involved in the BroadWay PCP include: Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Ireland, The Netherlands, Romania and Spain.
An animated video presentation of BroadWay can be viewed below
