RESCAN Innovation Day Highlights Importance of New Critical communications Technologies in Emergency Management

The Directorate General for the Digital Transformation of the Public Services of the Canary Islands Government has organised this conference to showcase the latest developments in critical communications

The Government of the Canary Islands has organised, in collaboration with the Canary Islands Emergency and Security Network (RESCAN), Técnicas Competitivas and Teltronic, the Conference “RESCAN, Technological Novelties for Critical Communications”. The event took place over two sessions held in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, and was aimed at professionals from the emergency and telecommunications sector, focusing on the future evolution of the RESCAN network and how the latest technology can contribute to improving safety and efficiency in emergency services.

The conference was inaugurated by the Director General of Digital Transformation of Public Services of the Canary Islands Government, Guadalupe González, who highlighted the pioneering value of RESCAN, and the importance of having a network of these characteristics to improve the coordination of all the agents involved in emergency management, especially in a territory such as the Canary Islands, marked by a complicated orography.

The presentations began with the participation of the head of the Telecommunications Section of the Canary Islands Government, Luis Ramírez, who analysed the situation of RESCAN, a network that currently provides TETRA coverage to almost 89% of the Canary Islands territory and 97% of its population. The network currently has 12,034 radio terminals, and provides service to a total of 134 fleets, handling more than 80,000 voice calls per day and more than 69 million messages per year. 

In his speech, Ramirez highlighted the availability of the network, which has reached 99.93% of the time, and emphasised the importance of the transportable units, “which allow a communications system to be deployed in just 6 minutes”. Ramirez also pointed out some of the aspects that are being worked on for the future, such as the incorporation of new tactical LTE cells, the expansion of green sites that use photovoltaic and wind energy, or the development of a system of SOS posts for very isolated environments such as beaches or hiking routes where there is no operator coverage but there is RESCAN coverage.

Teltronic’s sales manager for Iberia, Simone Cassetti, explained how the emergence of new technologies such as real-time video transmission, drones and Artificial Intelligence will contribute to improving the work of these agencies, reducing response times, enabling means of communication to improve emergency plans, increasing the capacity of the personnel with new tools and providing more information immediately.

“The best support for all these new applications is private broadband networks,” said Teltronic’s Head of Product Management, Raquel Frisa, at the beginning of her speech. Frisa stressed that private 4G and 5G deployments are the best guarantee of Quality of Service and availability, as “mobile operators do not guarantee service during critical events, which is precisely where these agencies have to work”.

Frisa stressed that these broadband networks, which offer higher data transmission rates and lower latencies, complement certain services that narrowband does not allow, and encouraged attendees to explore these new applications now that the regulatory framework already allows new uses, such as video transmission from drones or the use of Bodyworn cameras.

Finally, Teltronic’s Head of Pilots and Demos, Manuel Iglesias, spoke about tactical solutions and the important benefits they bring to emergency management. These units, explained Iglesias, are very versatile and allow to extend the service quickly in areas that were outside the coverage area, or to increase the traffic capacity in the anticipation of extraordinary events.

The sessions have been completed with a real demo with one of the transportable units of the Government of the Canary Islands, as well as a Teltronic tactical cell that has a system that incorporates TETRA, LTE and 5G technologies installed in a vehicle.

In this way, the participants in the conference were able to see first-hand how, thanks to these rapid deployment solutions, it is possible to have a communications system quickly and easily available wherever it is needed, and to check the multiple possibilities they can offer, such as video transmission from drones, as well as the interoperability between the different technologies.