Stream of consciousness
The sessions at this year’s
The Critical Communications Europe stream at BAPCO/CCE 2019 covered many topics
around public safety communications in great depth. Sam Fenwick dives into the details
Critical Communications
Europe event (which
was co-located with
the BAPCO Annual
Conference and Exhibition) broke
down into three broad topics: the
work that European public safety
operators are doing to ensure a
successful transition to mission-critical
broadband; the context in terms of
cellular technology (both 5G and
the availability of spectrum); and
recent developments in supporting
technologies such as AI and cloud.
Jarmo Vinkvist, CEO of Suomen
Virveverkko (which is part of
Erillisverkot Group), kicked o with a
presentation on the transition of Virve,
the Finnish nationwide public safety
network, to broadband. He explained
that the timing was opportune, given
that this was his last opportunity
to speak publicly on the subject, as
the public procurement process for
the broadband service (Virve 2.0)
was to begin the day after (see the
summary of RFI responses at https://
bit.ly/2HtWc8g). He noted that
the expected increase in situational
card will be available, but the extra
geographical coverage and hardening
of the network (which together are
expected to cost €200m-€300m) will
not have been achieved by that point.
e current plan is to start with 4G
provided by one of the commercial
operators and move to 5G over the
years. e transition from TETRA
will happen for the most part between
2022 and 2025, with railway users
being the last to migrate. ere will be
national roaming (it was mandated by
law in February). Vinkvist added that
one problem Finland has is interference
in the 700MHz band (which has been
sold to commercial operators) from
Russia’s TV broadcasting services, and
this aects roughly more than half of
the country.
Barbara Held, head of directorate
– strategy and central management
at the German Federal Agency for
Public Safety Digital Radio (BDBOS),
presented her organisation’s vision
for broadband. She emphasised that
BDBOS’s propositions have not
been agreed at the political level.
e German broadband strategy is
still under discussion between the
awareness is probably the key benet of
moving to mission-critical broadband
and highlighted the Finnish police’s
use of drones, including during the
visit by presidents Trump and Putin to
Helsinki lastsummer.
Vinkvist added that negotiations
with interested parties will take
place in May/June and then the nal
procurement process will occur in
August/September, so by October/
November “we should have the nal
answers”. Erillisverkot will act as the
service operator.
Vinkvist also noted that while
all three of Finland’s commercial
operators (Elisa, Telia and DNA)
have ‘nationwide’ networks, their
geographical coverage is around 80-
85 per cent, so a “huge amount” of
additional work will need to be done
to expand the chosen commercial
network, particularly in the northern
and eastern parts of the country where
an extra 200 masts or so will need to
be built where demand for commercial
services is lacking.
He said the RFI for mission-critical
apps will also be published this year
and that in 2020 a mission-critical sim
BDBOS’s Barbara
Held discussed
her organisation’s
hybrid approach
to the transition
to mission-critical
broadband
8 www.criticalcomms.com April Supplement 2019
/www.criticalcomms.com
/2HtWc8g