Friday fragments - comms news from around the web for 6 June 2014

A round-up of the week's critical communications and public safety radio news for Friday, 6 June 2014.

FirstNet folks not happy. Some FirstNet officials are reportedly unhappy with efforts by some vendors to push ahead with establishing a mission-critical voice standard through the Open Mobile Alliance rather than the 3GPP.

New Zealand RSM update. Radio Spectrum Management has released its regular update of spectrum matters, covering new rules in the Radio Licence Certification Rules (PIB 38), a reminder of issues concerning transmitters aboard unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as a rebranding of RSM itself.

Comms Connect Sydney almost here. The first Comms Connect satellite event will be held in Sydney on 18-19 June. The organisers are expecting a full house for the conference and exhibition, but it's not too late to register for the event. See the Comms-Connect.com.au website for details.

FirstNet's new boss speaks out. FirstNet Chairwoman Sue Swenson admitted during a keynote speech following the body's recent public board meeting that she felt so frustrated last year that she almost quit her job. But in the end she decided FirstNet's role is so important that she had to stay and be part of it. In the address, she also called on all stakeholders to put aside their differences and work together.

Keeping soldiers connected. A US military communications system known as the Battlefield Airborne Communications Node, or BACN, is proving to be extremely successful in translating and distributing “imagery, video, voice and data, often from disparate elements, improving situational awareness by allowing ground troops to reach back for needed support over mountainous terrain".

Comverse claims dominance in North American VoLTE. Comverse says it holds a “dominant market share" of voice over LTE services in North America. “Comverse helps CSPs leverage IP and VoLTE to exploit the capabilities of their 4G networks to deliver rich new voice, video and messaging services while realising significant cost efficiencies."

Huawei claims top Wi-Fi speed. Chinese vendor Huawei says it has demonstrated a data transfer rate of 10.53 Gbps using IEEE 802.11ax on the 5 GHz band, which it claims is about 10 times faster than anything achieved before. The company says it used a combination of “MIMO-OFDA, intelligent spectrum allocation, interference coordination and hybrid access".

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