‘The Evolution of First Responder Communications’ as seen by Central Government, Emergency Services and Network Operators

Security technology specialists from the UK and USA will come together on 26th November at ‘The Evolution of First Responder Communications - Making the Most of Available 4G Services’ event to discuss developments that could pave the way for the future of the emergency services in the UK. Jointly organised by Cambridge Wireless and ICT KTN, the half day event will be hosted by Deloitte – specialists in auditing and corporate finance – at its London offices.

As communications technologies and products evolve to deliver new services and applications to public safety users, it is imperative that the standards environment is aligned. With LTE Release 12 being developed to support group communications within the next three to seven years, this event investigates the uses commercial broadband services could have for the emergency services in the near future.

With the introduction of multiple 4G commercial service providers this year, the event will ask if now is a good time to review the direction of the development of professional two-way wireless communications services. Can first responders such as police, fire and ambulance depend on the commercially-based services? Do they have the level of security, reliability and resilience required by the emergency services?

Gordon Shipley, ESMCP Programme Manager at the Home Office says: “The Emergency Service Mobile Communications Programme (ESMCP) is attempting to procure a national critical voice and broadband data service for police, fire and ambulance services. The current service is expensive and only supports narrow-band data so ESMCP will go to the telecommunications market in 2014 to invite proposals for ESN from late 2016 as the current service contracts begin to expire. 4G LTE is a serious contender for ESN.”

This event brings together central government, users on the ground, network operators and other suppliers to discuss user requirements and supplier expectations of what to provide in a 2-3 year timespan, including the provision of emergency service specific smartphone and tablet based applications.

Euros Evans, CTO of Airwave adds: “Mobile communications and technology will continue to be a critical enabler to support frontline public safety users. It’s imperative to highlight the vital service capabilities currently needed to deliver mission critical voice and data communications. There must also be consideration for spectrum, as well as the role of standards bodies and industry vendors.”

The Cambridge Wireless Security & Defence SIG event is supported by ICT KTN and lunch is kindly supplied by Selex ES. For more information on this event or to register, please visit the Cambridge Wireless website – www.cambridgewireless.co.uk/events