This short event will provide an insight into the work and progress of BroadWay, and what to expect from the pilot systems when they are ready in just over a year’s time.
We also plan for BroadNet which will realise the outcome of BroadWay as a live capability to offer production use of operational mobility for our European Responders.
DG Home challenged the public safety community in 2015 to gather and validate requirements for a pan-European Mobile Broadband system to improve mobile communications for public safety responders. The BroadMap project informed the need for a pre-commercial procurement (PCP) to explore the technological possibility to realise this capability gap. www.broadmap.eu
The BroadWay PCP began in 2018 bringing together 11 government/agency buyers in 11 member states. They are each responsible for public safety mobile communication in their country, collectively representing 1.4Million European Responders.
BroadWay is currently in its second PCP phase with prototypes being developed by Airbus, Leonardo and Frequentis, due to be evaluated in April 2021. Funding is available for subsequent selection of the best 2 prototypes to be converted to live TRL8 pilots for evaluation in early 2022.
Operational Mobility will improve the capability of responder practitioners to carry out their crucial role as a life saver, medical responder, crime fighter, fire fighter, border guard, disaster recovery specialist, etc. There are too many disciplines to mention!
Operational Mobility will provide responders with the capability to communicate
- wherever they are in Europe,
- whenever they need to, and
- with whoever they should most efficiently collaborate.
Communication must be trustworthy, secure and available whenever and wherever needed.
Current communication technology used by public safety allows voice calls and short data. The exchange of valuable rich data e.g. photos, videos, maps, etc is not easily achievable with the current technology used. Commercial mobile is available to us all, to use wherever we are, but is not secure or reliable enough, and does not easily support the working procedures of responders and other practitioners in a harmonised way.