Over the past decade or so, the global public safety community and its allies – what we call the Mission-Critical Communications Ecosystem (MCC-ECO) in this paper – have made great strides towards unified next-generation mission-critical communication systems based on broadband technology, these will serve first responders and other critical users for the next decade and beyond.
However, many agencies have faced significant challenges and often considerable delays during their migration from existing, legacy, tried, tested and trusted narrowband to emerging, next-generation broadband solutions. This has created a chasm that can only be crossed with the concerted efforts of the entire MCC-ECO described in the next section. Countries including South Korea, the United States, Finland and the United Kingdom are leading by example in showing the way and providing valuable experiences to a growing number of followers. Going forward, we expect these pioneer countries to continue re-defining the precise nature of the chasm.
This white paper sets out the strategy, drivers and framework for identifying and visualising the critical path for next-generation MCC-ECO acting as a call to action for the ecosystem to take the bold steps required to cross the chasm and enter a new era with confidence, boldness and determination.
This paper outlines what it will take for nations to adopt the next generation mission-critical communication systems.
