Looking Back at a Career in Communications: Q&A with Anton Abrahams

Following 15 years as a director of the Australasian Critical Communications Forum (ACCF), Anton Abrahams is stepping down from the ACCF board, but will remain involved with the work of the Forum as a member. Here he looks back at the achievements of the ACCF, and what the future holds for the ACCF and for critical communications in the region.

When and how did you first become involved in the critical communications sector?
As a young electronics engineer from the Netherlands, I arrived in Australia in the 1970s. I was first employed by Siemens Australia and in 1978 I was hired by the Philips Telecommunications Manufacturing Centre in Clayton, Victoria, which predominantly was involved in the design and manufacturing of land mobile radio as part of the global Philips company.

At that stage the company exported its LMR products globally and was the centre of excellence in the Philips Concern. Products of notoriety were the first synthesised LMR products, FM900, the FM880 radio links and the introduction of the 40-channel CB UHF FM320 radios.

This started my long career in the critical communications sector, which took me back to Europe in the 1980s to work for the Philips Mobile Radio Management Group (MRMG) in Cambridge, UK, and in APAC based with Philips Singapore. This was followed by a stint as the regional director of Telecom Australia Int’l (Telstra) in South Asia setting up cellular radio networks, first AMPS followed by GSM and VSAT services.

The full interview with Anton Abrahams can be read on the website of Critical Comms