Following the global financial crisis and the advent of LTE,
we decided in 2010 to focus exclusively on PTT over cellular
(PoC). When the global critical communications industry
decided to work together in 3GPP and created Working
Group SA6, our focus switched to MCPTT, which has
expanded to include the full range of mission-critical services,
including voice, data and video.
We could see that in the medium term a wide range of
global users would require broadband solutions such as video
to complement and enhance legacy PMR voice and short data
messages, so Genaker has been focusing on this potentially
enormous gap in the market.
What projects have you recently deployed? Could
you tell us about the most innovative aspects?
We have deployed a number of projects in a wide range of
verticals including public safety, transport and industry. Some
of these are based on our cloud service; others on a server
located on customer premises. Some customers use our PTT/
MCPTT services to complement and interconnect their
legacy PMR-TETRA services, while others are so convinced
by our offering that they have actually replaced their TETRA
networks with Genaker PTT/MCPTT solutions.
We are currently hard at work delivering a small number
of highly significant projects in our home market of Spain, in
Europe and also in North America. When we are able to, we
will publish more details.
Genaker was chosen and entrusted with such important
and demanding deployments because we have solutions for
all relevant spectrum bands including 450MHz, and can also
offer eMBMS and other specialised functionalities, which
result in operational efficiencies for our customers.
Genaker joined TCCA back in 2017 – what has
been your experience of being part of it and how
has it helped Genaker achieve its goals?
I must admit that we have been so busy since 2017 that our
participation in TCCA has been symbolic so far – although
we are determined to play a more active role in the future.
We have participated in previous Critical Communications
World (CCW) events and also attended TCCA CCBG
(Critical Communications Broadband Group) meetings. It
Miquel Teixidor CV
Miquel Teixidor, Genaker’s CEO, founded the company
in 2003, along with eight former Nokia R&D engineers.
It is focused on the development of advanced group
communications solutions, based on real-time IP multimedia,
such as PTT, MCPTT, MCX, with commercial operations in
more than 15 countries worldwide.
He worked for Nokia for 11 years, first in Finland as a
researcher in PCM R&D and as export manager for PMR and
transmission systems, where he opened up new markets
across Europe and Latin America; then in charge of the Nokia
Spain Industrial Plan and as director of Nokia Mobile Phones
R&D Centre in Barcelona. Miquel has a telecommunications
engineering degree from La Salle University, Barcelona and
an MBA from Manhattan College, New York.
is definitely part of our future strategic roadmap to become
more active within TCCA. We will most definitely be
participating in CCW 2020, being held in Madrid next June,
where we will be making announcements about technology
breakthroughs and significant mission-critical deployments
around the globe.
What has been the most difficult challenge you
encountered when setting up and establishing the
company and how did you overcome it?
When my colleagues and I set up Genaker, the market was
still not ready for our solutions, so our greatest challenge was
finding our way and acquiring our first customers. Once we
had real customers testing our solutions, the next challenge
was invoicing on a regular basis and getting paid. One of our
most difficult challenges today is capturing new talent.
Over the past 16 years, there have been good times and
challenging times, but we have stuck to our task, remained
focused on PTT/MCPTT and we have been doubling our
sales for the past three years and are now cashflow-positive.
Do you have any advice for start-ups
that are looking to enter the critical
communications sector?
New companies entering the critical communications space
must be able to innovate, stay focused and be resilient.
It is important to focus on what they are best at and that
they don’t spend valuable time and money until they have
identified who their customers are and what their real
problems and needs are.
New companies must also be flexible, agile and, above all,
patient. Business consolidation in our sector can be a long
process and take a lot of time, so it is important for
founders to be prepared to struggle and endure. In a world
dominated by large multinationals, successful SMEs must
build strong, long-lasting collaboration agreements with
like-minded partners. Finally, I would encourage new players
to come and join us on our journey to help us develop and
implement the best possible end-to-end solutions for missioncritical
and business-critical users. Momentum is clearly on
our side and the time for MCPTT, MCX and next-generation
critical communications is now.
October 2019 @CritCommsToday 27