APCO and TCCA join forces

The affiliation between the APCO Global Alliance and TETRA Critical Communications Association to support the Public Safety Communications Research laboratories in their efforts to raise the awareness of the need for mission critical standards for new generation technologies, marks an important first step in the closer collaboration between the global representative bodies.

APCO Australasia’s chairman and current chair of the APCO Global Alliance, Mr Geoff Spring, said, “It is vital that Australia’s public safety agencies have access to the same seamless communications capabilities that Australians now enjoy. However, these same capabilities need to be strengthened to meet the demands of public safety agencies when being used for public safety events ranging from a single event through to major disasters requiring the involvement of one or more agencies.

“Importantly Australians will have the expectation that they will be able to use the same multimedia LTE technology to access and assist public safety agencies by providing text, pictures and video relating to events and, likewise, the agencies can communicate with individuals and communities using the same technologies,” he continued.

The work to put the affiliation in place commenced through discussions that took place at the 2012 APCO Australasia Conference and Exhibition in Queensland in March. These conversations continued through meetings held in Manchester, UK and Dubai, UAE and culminated with co-coordinated announcements being made in Washington DC at the National Broadband Summit and in Dubai UAE at the TETRA World Congress.

Spring also commented: “while the rapid evolution and convergence of technologies will continue to meet consumer demand for 24/7, always connected, always available, multimedia communications, it is important that investment continues in the existing mission critical, land mobile radio systems currently used by Australia’s public safety agencies because voice communications will continue to be the primary means of communications for many years, but increasingly supplemented by the information and intelligence provided by technologies such as LTE, which will require the complex combination of mission critical standards, time, money, spectrum and resources.”

The announcement of the affiliation between the APCO Global Alliance and the TCCA provides some insight to the work being done by APCO Australasia in representing the interests of the sector internationally, however, at the same time, work has continued within Australia to build local affiliations which can be seen in the affiliations announced at the conference in Queensland; with the Australian Radio Communications Association (ARCIA) and Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria (VFBV).

APCO Australasia is also working closely with the Australian TETRA Association to replicate the affiliation announced between the global associations.

Source: Radiocomms