The Critical Communications Association
NEW IDEAS IN AN EVOLVING MARKET
TCCA chief executive Tony Gray discusses the core learning from CCW 2019, and what the sector will
have accomplished by next year’s show in Madrid
Q: Why is CCW so important as
an event?
A: CCW has long been established
as the single, one-stop, annual global
event where all elements of the critical
communications sector come together to
inform, update, learn and network.
The event continues to grow, and
this ongoing success is due to its
refl ection of the evolving market, with a
combination of expert-led masterclasses,
highly engaging and informative
conference sessions and, of course,
a world-class exhibition featuring a
huge range of the latest systems and
solutions developments appealing to a
worldwide audience.
Q: Why was it important to engage with
the Southeast Asian market?
A: The Southeast Asian critical
communications market, in common with
many other regional markets around the
world, is expanding and hungry for new
ideas and innovation. We chose Kuala
Lumpur for CCW 2019 as we identifi ed a
timely opportunity to showcase worldleading
projects and best practice in
a region that has fantastic potential.
The invaluable help of host operator
Sapura, and the Malaysian government,
was critical to the success of the event
and we very much appreciate all
their support.
Q: What were the main takeaways from
CCW 2019, from the point of view of
industry trends, best practice and so on?
A: For me it was important to see that
the initial feverish hype over broadband
of a few years ago has relaxed somewhat
and the reality of implementation
timeframes and practical co-existence
of narrowband solutions such as TETRA
with the 4G/5G broadband future is now
understood, accepted and embraced.
It was also great to see and hear
about new developments in areas
such as hybrid terminal devices as
well as enhancements and upgrades
to existing equipment portfolios from
many vendors. It all goes to prove
the point continually made by TCCA
and its members – and underlined by
independent industry analysts – that the
entire critical communications sector is
vibrant and growing year on year, which
is encouraging and exciting for all of us.
Q: A core theme of the conference
sessions was the roll-out of technologies
such as AI, IoT, as well as the continued
development of 5G. What will ultimately
be the impact of these solutions, and
how will they be benefi cial to missioncritical
users?
A: It remains to be seen what some of
the ‘killer applications’ for 4G and 5G
might be for mission-critical users, but
certainly the level of interest in areas
such as facial recognition, AI, drones
and the others on show at CCW this
year suggests that there could be
signifi cant benefi ts provided the
technology is implemented in
a targeted manner to support
critical user needs. The critical
communications community has
been on what I think of as the ‘Gs
rollercoaster’ ever since TCCA
fi rst began working with 3GPP some six
years ago. That means we’ll continue to
see signifi cantly faster development of
mission-critical solutions feeding from,
and riding on the back of, commercial
mobile developments as the number of
Gs increases.
Q: What are your hopes for CCW 2020
in Madrid? What progress – for instance,
in relation to mission-critical broadband –
should have been made by then?
A: By June of 2020 when the event
goes to Madrid I’m expecting to
see even more progress with the
development of equipment and
solutions conforming to the maturing
mission-critical 3GPP standards
MCPTT, MCData and MCVideo, now
collectively known as MCX. We expect
the standards enabling interoperability
between 3GPP systems and TETRA
to be completed both in ETSI and
3GPP, so there should be news about
practical advances on that front as
well. In the meantime, there will
undoubtedly have been more progress
with operator projects around the
world aiming to overlay mission-critical
broadband services while retaining
their tried and trusted TETRA
networks. I’m expecting
this to provide the proof of
TCCA’s published Roadmap
towards critical broadband
which can be found at tcca.
info/documents/january-
2019-ppdr-broadbandroadmap.
pdf.
Tony Gray
chief executive,
TCCA
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