Meeting the LTE challenge

During March, I was fortunate to be able to travel to Perth for Comms Connect and then the ARCIA WA dinner event. Both events were well attended and I congratulate the members from ARCIA WA for putting in the time and effort to make this happen.

This year at Comms Connects around Australia and New Zealand, I will be presenting on the theme of ‘Threats and opportunities for the LMR industry as technology evolves towards LTE’. The point of this discussion is to raise issues surrounding our industry and in particular how spectrum, regulation and technology are all changing. While technology may change, the people in our industry have experience and skills that will be required in the long term, and we think it is important that our industry engages with and learns from the new technology options that will be in the marketplace.

With this in mind, I also had the opportunity to travel to IWCE in Las Vegas. Moving around the very large convention centre, you can certainly see how technology is changing rapidly. Of course all the usual products are there — radios, accessories, towers — however, the rise and rise of applications, Android-based solutions, dual-mode LMR/LTE products and cloud services is stark evidence of how quickly new products are coming to market. And it was very pleasing to see so many Australian companies showcasing their solutions at IWCE. Across a range of technologies areas, you will find an Australian company selling to the world — well done to all.

Our next major event is the Industry Dinner on 7 June at the Novotel Homebush in conjunction with Comms Connect Sydney. ARCIA is delighted to be hosting TJ Kennedy, the president of FirstNet, for these events. As the public safety community comes to grips with LTE technology, we believe that our peak industry body is in an ideal position to advocate on behalf of public safety organisations and bring independent advice into the discussions. By engaging with international leaders and organisations bringing LTE to public safety, ARCIA hopes that Australia can learn quickly what it will take to ensure the needs of our public safety community can be meet.

The ARCIA committee continues to work on a number of items and we expect very soon to be reviewing the new Radiocommunications Act. The relationship that ARCIA has developed with the ACMA over the last few years continues to grow and we appreciate the time that the ACMA provides to our association. The new Act will be very important for our industry and we will be drawing on the experience of many ARCIA members to help understand what the potential impact of changes may be.

A quick note to mark a date in your diaries — Thursday, 27 July — for the Brisbane events, with Comms Connect during the day and the industry dinner that evening, both to be held once again at Rydges in South Brisbane. Nominations will be needed for the Industry Professional for Queensland, too, so get your thinking caps on. See you ‘on the air’.

Hamish Duff

President

Australian Radio Communications Industry Association