Together with two-way capable devices from Swissphone
such as RES.Q and s.QUAD terminals, s.ONE delivers a
complete, fully developed solution for alerting, monitoring,
resource management and remote configuration of terminals.
This solution will deliver more efficiency throughout the
alerting process – before, during and after alerting. However,
this means that the organisations need to review their internal
processes and be willing to make improvements.
We have received very positive orders in the healthcare
sector and in industry. We have also improved our internal
processes. For example, we have adapted our organisation to
better meet our market’s needs and intensified co-operation
between our national companies and with our partners.
What are your current challenges and priorities?
In terms of networks, we are developing an even more robust
and modern system architecture which is compliant with the
external risks; eg, a self-reliant network that is independent
from power supply utilities, wired radio network access, thirdparty
infrastructure, commercial cellular networks, internet
lines, smartphones and two-way radios.
Are there any commonly held misconceptions
about paging that you have to dispel?
We see many organisations in Europe and in North America
investing in paging technology. The main drivers behind these
investments are POCSAG’s ability to provide:
• 100 per cent control over the network with high reliability
• A high level of resilience, which is increased further still
when combined with other technologies
• A good way to get a message to many users very quickly
• A dedicated critical messaging service, which means that
critical messages can’t get lost in the barrage of notifications,
texts, emails and video content on a smartphone.
Do you have any advice for mission-critical
organisations that are considering using paging
solutions for critical alerting?
It’s all about good planning – a paging network starts with
a radio coverage plan, which includes a computational
simulation and some on-site verification measurements. Since
there are many variables to play with (such as site location,
Angelo Saccoccia CV
Angelo became Swissphone’s CEO in October 2015. Prior to
that he worked as sales manager and promotion manager
at Sony (Switzerland), at Swissphone Telecom AG for 15
years, serving as its chief marketing officer and member of
the Executive Board. In 2010 he founded his own company,
TC Promotion GmbH in Baar, Switzerland, which provided
consultancy services to spin-offs and other companies in the
health care and public safety industries.
Angelo has eight years’ experience in consumer
electronics, five years’ in health care industries and more
than 20 years’ experience in the public safety industry.
He has realised projects in Europe, the Middle East and
North America and has an MBA from The Open University
Business School.
transmission power, antenna height and antenna diversity),
typically the main constraints are not technical ones. It’s more
often the case that organisational constraints arise (eg, desired
sites are not available or cost too much). In this case, the radio
coverage planning must be adjusted.
After that, three single components are needed to build a
paging network:
• A computer-aided dispatching (CAD) system, which
connects to the paging network controller by a
standard interface
• A paging network controller, which connects by LAN to
the master base station
• A master base station, which broadcasts the message by
wireless POCSAG to the slave base stations, which then
repeat the message so that the pagers can receive it.
Due to the requirement for high availability, all
components should be redundantly available. Also, all
components should have a back-up power supply such as
batteries and solar cells.
What are your thoughts on the major trends in the
critical communications industry?
Today, there are many ways to send a message, such as 5G
and internet connections that allow cloud services and apps.
But public safety organisations need a reliable and redundant
technology for alerting which works even in a blackout –
when nothing else is working and telecoms are down.
However, broadband communications are becoming more
and more important to the authorities as today’s missioncritical
communication technologies TETRA, Tetrapol and
P25 (North America) have very slow data transfer rates
compared with 3G or LTE/4G.
The use of public mobile broadband services will stimulate
the demand of crisis communication users for high-speed
data services. In the medium to long term (from around
2025-27), LTE will also be used for public safety as a voice
communication substitute for public safety users.
Hybrid solutions (LTE for mission-critical use with
TETRA/POCSAG) have after careful evaluation advantages
and new opportunities but also challenges. Swissphone has
launched the first POCSAG/LTE IoT device and is evaluating
its acceptance in several European countries.
October 2019 @CritCommsToday 25