Left: BDBOS’s
Barbara Held
discussed her
organisation’s
hybrid approach
to the transition
to mission-critical
broadband;
right: Jarmo
Vinkvist explained
Erillisverkot’s
approach to
procuring
broadband
services for
Finland’s Virve 2.0
project
spring events supplement for our coverage of the discussions
around spectrum, cloud and AI).
Jarmo Vinkvist, CEO of Suomen Virveverkko (which is
part of Erillisverkot Group), kicked off 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 awareness is probably the key benefit 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 last summer.
Vinkvist added that negotiations with interested parties
will take place in May/June and then the final procurement
process will occur in August/September, so by October/
November “we should have the final 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
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.
The plan is to start with 4G provided by one of the
commercial operators and move to 5G over the years. The
transition from TETRA will happen for the most part
between 2022 and 2025, with railway users being the last to
migrate. There will be national roaming (it was mandated by
law in February). Vinkvist added that Finland suffers from
interference in the 700MHz band (which has been sold to
commercial operators) from Russia’s TV broadcasting services,
and this affects 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. The German
broadband strategy is still under discussion between the
federal level and the 16 states. The current hybrid model
the agency is proposing (as previously covered in our
coverage of last year’s PMRExpo) consists of continuing
to use the country’s TETRA network for voice for several
more years, while also using a dedicated nationwide 4G/5G
network operating in 450MHz to provide basic broadband
data services. The “basic network” would reuse BDBOS’s
existing assets where possible, but would also require new
sites to be built. The mission-critical services of the future
network would be supplemented with RAN sharing with
commercial operators in 700MHz and national roaming with
commercial partners.
Held added that the hybrid model that BDBOS is
favouring will “live or die with the spectrum question” and
that BDBOS is filing for spectrum in the 450MHz band. She
said the German regulator is offering access to some spectrum
in this band to BDBOS, but this requires sharing it with
power utilities, so “BDBOS is fighting to get the entire 2 x
4.7MHz slot… and the optimum we would like to get is 2
x 10MHz”. She added that the decision on the assignment of
spectrum “should be made within this year at the latest”.
One new detail was the news that BDBOS will carry out
a two-stage ‘Broadband Test’, which aims to obtain practical
knowledge on the use and conceptualisation of the future
hybrid broadband infrastructure for German PPDR. The
first stage is planned to take place in the first half of 2019 –
this will consist of developing the detailed concept, drafting
and planning the test scenarios and then issuing a call to
tender. The second stage, which will take place in the second
half of 2019 and the first half of 2020, will implement the
April 2019 @CritCommsToday 29
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