JVCKENWOOD Corporation and Airbus Defence and Space Form Alliance to Develop and Commercialise Public Safety Wireless Broadband Systems

Airbus Defence and Space (formerly Cassidian) and the JVCKENWOOD Corporation (JVCKENWOOD) have formed an alliance in order to jointly evaluate common developments in public safety wireless broadband technology for North America and Europe. In the long term, this will allow both companies to offer groundbreaking technology to these key markets in response to the future needs of existing and new customers.

Public safety organisations such as the police, fire brigades and emergency response teams will need to expand their secured communications from narrowband voice communications to 3G or 4G broadband (Long Term Evolution – LTE) in order to be able to transfer large data, such as images and videos. To promote North American as well as European business development in both companies, the companies will jointly examine such professional broadband technologies applicable to both digital radio standards, P25, a digital radio standard for North America, and TETRA, its European equivalent. In addition, the companies will explore further opportunities to jointly develop technologies and solutions for the evolution of Professional Mobile Radio (PMR) markets.

“Our PMR networks users are facing an increasing need for enhanced data capacities and LTE has been selected as the access technology for the evolution towards multi-media group communication services beyond 2020,” said Jean-Marc Nasr, Head of Sales Europe, Middle East and Africa of Airbus Defence and Space. “Bundling the experience and research and development capabilities of JVCKENWOOD with ours is a major step towards making such mission critical communications technology available in the future.”

Haruo Kawahara, CEO of JVCKENWOOD, said: “The joint development of next generation public safety radio systems will provide plenty of new opportunities, especially in the countries where a dedicated frequency band has been assigned to a public safety broadband system (LTE). We intend to address the market of police, fire brigades and emergency response teams with a full-scale public safety wireless broadband system with video and sensor solutions. We have a good dealership in the United States, for example, and are excited to be able to support customers with all-in-one P25 next generation system solutions. Doing this together with Airbus Defence and Space is a perfect match.”