Valid8 and BT join TCCA

TCCA, the global member-led organisation for all stakeholders in the critical communications ecosystem, has this week welcomed US-based network testing company Valid8 as a new member. Within its Working Groups, interoperability and certification programs, and via its Critical Communications World event, TCCA members and partners set the agenda for the global development of critical communications.

Valid8 provides testing tools and services for mission-critical communications such as MCX and P25 ISSI/CSSI, 5G, 4G/LTE and the Internet of Things (IoT). The company tests fixed and mobile networks with an upgrade path to support emerging technologies such as 5G and IoT, with a customer base representing some of the largest providers in the world.

“We are excited to be a member of TCCA,” said Valid8 CEO Ian Carpenter. “As a regular participant at the ETSI MCX Plugtests events, TCCA offers a great opportunity for Valid8 to expand our reach and connect with the global TCCA membership.

“We look forward to further conversations and to sharing with the membership our load, emulation, feature and conformance test tools for the MCX industry.”

TCCA CEO Kevin Graham added, “TCCA has always encouraged open standards, multivendor interoperability, conformance and certification for business- and mission-critical communications applications. We look forward to Valid8 sharing their experience to drive adoption of and confidence in interoperable and certified solutions for the benefit of end users.”

The news comes one month after BT, a leading provider of fixed and mobile telecommunications in the UK, announced its own membership of TCCA. Globally, BT supports more than 1.2 million businesses and public sector organisations — including defence, central government, emergency services, the NHS, and critical power and water agencies — and over 32 million consumer customers.

Every year, BT handles over 39 million 999/112 emergency calls before passing on to the relevant service. Through its EE mobile network, BT Group provides resilient mission-critical broadband communications for Britain’s Emergency Services Network (ESN). By providing quality of service, plus priority and pre-emption over other network users, emergency services and first responders can depend on the network so they can stay focused on their life-saving work.

“We’re delighted to join the TCCA and share our extensive EE and BT expertise that’s been established over many years through delivering critical national infrastructure and mission-critical services, like ESN,” said Richard Harrap, Managing Director for the Emergency Services Network at EE/BT.

“As one of the world’s first organisations to integrate mission-critical voice and broadband services over a commercial LTE network, we’ve learned lots that could benefit other nations as they embark upon similar journeys. And, through our membership we can also collaborate, learn from how others approach critical communications, and continue to drive standards forward for the benefit of the industry.”

“The strategy of many governments to deliver mission-critical broadband to their essential agencies is through partnering with existing telecom operators,” Graham said. “TCCA are very pleased to welcome BT to our global membership given their involvement in the UK ESN and other services and solutions they provide into critical user organisations that are essential to the ecosystem.

“We look forward to the valuable information sharing they can contribute to peers and end users across our community.”