Mission Critical LTE focus at ITU Telecom

The audience at ITU Telecom World has heard about the growing role for Critical Communications LTE systems beyond being purely for public safety professionals. Tony Gray of the TCCA identified ‘critical communicators’ as also being transportation and utilities workers as they too need to deliver a level of service, even when other services are down or non-existent. He identified this broader group as a ‘much wider, potential market for LTE’.

Phil Kidner, the CEO of the TCCA, further emphasized the total size of the Critical Communications community, numbering over 7 million globally, many using TETRA technology. He predicted the continuation of TETRA’s success, stating; “Not only will TETRA be a key component of delivering Critical Communications beyond the 10-year timeframe - that others predict - but it will also be able to happily co-exist with LTE.”

Adrian Scrase, ETSI CTO and the Head of the 3GPP Mobile Competence Centre, agreed on the major role that TETRA is playing and how this is helping to drive the work in 3GPP, showing both the importance of the work and the need for dialogue. Adrian Scrase informed the ITU Telecom World audience about the creation of the 3GPP SA6 working group and its first meeting to be held in January 2015.

3GPP SA6 will initially focus on the Mission Critical Push to Talk (MCPTT) application, but seems set to develop in to the home for all future 3GPP mission critical application work.

The session concluded with all of the panelists agreeing that LTE must become part of the ‘mission-critical mainstream’ calling for the LTE specifications to evolve in a collaborative way, taking on the best-practices and deeper knowledge of the Critical Communications community