Enlarging the prospect of operational mobility and interoperable critical communications for Public Safety across Europe
From BroadWay to BroadNet
Press release, 16/06/2021
The BroadWay project (Pre-Commercial Procurement) will provide a clear solution for operational mobility and enable critical communications across borders for Public Safety. The results reached so far by the innovation procurement project at the end of the prototype phase are promising and make the development of a technical solution very close to the market by mid- 2022 realistic.
The BroadWay project is already formed by 11 Member States acting as procurers. It has however addressed since its beginning the need to enlarge the scope of its implementation and to bring additional Member States to cover the largest possible territory of Europe for cross-border broadband communications.
In its efforts to ensure the sustainability of the results of BroadWay, the project has presented its promising results to practitioners who participated in the evaluation sessions of the prototypes developed by the three winning industrial consortiums and to various interested EU agencies like Europol, Frontex and EU-Lisa during the Prototype Phase 2.
On the 7th of June 2021, BroadWay gathered 7 additional Member States and 3 Associated Countries to attend a prototype demonstration from the BroadWay Suppliers Airbus, Leonardo and Frequentis. National ministry representatives were then invited to join the work on sustainability and to define jointly the future of BroadNet. Knowing that the technical solutions will be available, efforts should focus on the governance features of BroadNet which will realise the outcome of BroadWay as a live capability of Operational Mobility for European Responders.
On the same day, the Council on Justice and Home affairs in its conclusions stressed “the importance of secure operational and EU interoperable communication for law enforcement agencies and other security practitioners to be able to properly protect and respond in case of cross-border cooperation in the area of public spaces and major events, and invites Member States to further support EU initiatives aiming at the improvement of existing systems and EU-wide interoperable communication systems for public security, notably the Horizon 2020 BroadWay project”[1].
For BroadWay and our efforts towards sustainability this is a very welcome support. It shows that the aim for which we are working towards is endorsed not only on technical and expert level, but has also reached the highest decision makers. It should be noted, that these conclusions are addressing all the EU Member States, thus giving an additional incentive for our potential partners that are not yet part of the project or the discussions around strategic sustainability.
About BroadWay
BroadWay is a Pre-Commercial Procurement Project funded under the Horizon 2020 Research Programme. The project, running from 2018 to 2022, is coordinated by PUBLIC SAFETY COMMUNICATION EUROPE and composed of 11 buyers from 11 EU countries, which are the organisations responsible for transitioning to broadband for Public Safety Communication within their country. This group of procurer is led by ASTRID, the operator for emergency and security communication services in Belgium.
[1] pdf (europa.eu) Council Conclusions on the Protection of Public Spaces (7 June 2021)
The BroadWay Project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and development programme under Grant Agreement No. 786912.
