TETRA technology to dominate the 2016 International Critical Communications Awards

Although the name of the event has recently changed from TETRA Awards to International Critical Communications Awards (ICCA), in order to allow more technologies, thus more entries to the prestigious contest, it is yet again shown that TETRA technology still dominates within the critical communications industry.

Recently the organization opened up the awards to other critical communications technologies such as Mission Critical LTE, however, last week Friday, TETRA was still recognized as key critical communications technology for Public Safety, Utilities and for the Transport sector.

It was remarkable that this year, amongst the recommended solutions, solutions were shortlisted that do not (yet) comply to open standards. Something that is considered te be very important in within the industry.

Also remarkable was the absence of two major and leading manufacturers at the event, Motorola Solutions and Sepura. Where both technology giants year after year were shortlisted and awarded with innovative technology solutions and projects, this year we could to find both companies not even back on the shortlist, despite the world leading innovative solutions both companies have implemented over the last year.

So who were the winners of the 2016 ICCA?

• Airwave, the operator of the Public Safety TETRA network in the UK has won the Green Technology Award for their work in reducing carbon emissions and waste. 
• Critical Communications manufacturer Hytera Mobilfunk won the award: Outstanding Single-site TETRA Installation for their work with the World Bank and the IMF..
• Frequentis, the world wide specialist of control room solutions won the Best use of TETRA for Public Safety, for their voice communication system for the Bavarian Police.
• The SALUS consortium won the Best Evolution to Future Broadband.
• Intelligence on Wheels won the Best Use of TETRA for Transport for their TETRA-based train collision avoidance system - In this category the Judges looked for outstanding technologies and implementations based on TETRA in the transport domain. The judges “praised the way Intelligence on Wheels had applied proven TETRA technology to a new, safety-critical use case. They also were impressed by the innovation’s world-wide applicability, and its ability to enhance railway safety in a cost-effective way without major investment in infrastructure.”
• Best Use of Control Room Systems was awarded to The State Secretary of Public Safety Rio de Janeiro, SIRCE-RJ.
• Best Use of TETRA in Utilities winner CLP Power Hong Kong.
• Best Innovation Award winner is Finmechannica with the, the PUMA T4-TLE.