Frequentis Concludes Pilot Phase Tests in Malaga for a pan-European Safety-Critical Communications, Interoperable, Mobile Broadband Network

After several years of development work, the Frequentis-led BroadPort consortium successfully completed the Ferry Fire Trial in Malaga to prove the practicality of its multi country, safety- critical broadband communication network solution in a real-world scenario. The large-scale exercise brought together more than 40 Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) organisations from across Europe, as well as eight local Spanish authorities.

On a summers day in Malaga port the temperature hit 35 degrees and the Malaga control centre began receiving several simultaneous calls to report smoke rising from a ferry. This was shortly followed by an emergency call from the crew confirming that fire had broken out onboard. The scenario is threatening, but fortunately it was only a trial testing the next generation of safety-critical communication technology. This trial is executed across several countries for a pan-European, safety-critical broadband communication network called "BroadNet", which intends to be established by the European Union.

The Horizon 2020 project “Broadway” aims to lead the way towards a common, pan-European, mission critical broadband communications network that will enable operational mobility including closer cooperation across political borders and help save lives in the event of disasters.

The EU launched the project to overcome limitations in the interoperability of individual digital radio systems for emergency service first responders and the restrictions of narrowband technology (mostly TETRA), which currently only allows the transmission of voice and short data but does not permit safety-critical video transmission or the use of other mission-critical multimedia.