Samsung completes Australia's first demo of MC-PTT solutions

Australian first responder agencies face unique challenges when it comes to reliable and efficient communications. The country’s vast and diverse landscape, ranging from densely populated cities to remote rural areas, requires a robust and reliable communication system that operates effectively in any environment. In addition, Australia faces a variety of natural disasters such as bushfires, floods and cyclones, which intensify the need for advanced connectivity during critical situations.

Australia’s current public safety communication systems provide a mature and trusted voice capability, but often encounter challenges with coverage, audio quality, interoperability between different agencies and support for critical data including images, video and location information. Broadband mission-critical solutions help overcome these challenges and, by significantly augmenting communication capabilities, improve outcomes during emergencies.

To advance the national critical communications capability, the Australian Government formed a Public Safety Mobile Broadband (PSMB) Taskforce in late 2023. Samsung is a supporter of this national commitment and has powered an ongoing trial of its Mission Critical Push-to-X (MCPTX) solution to help Australia with its efforts.

This trial is the country’s first in involving MCPTX and interworking capabilities, and Samsung is showcasing its cross-regional efforts with Etherstack on a leading Australian mobile operator’s network. The collaboration underscores the capabilities of Samsung’s MCPTX in enhancing emergency responses, streamlining communication among first responders and ultimately keeping communities safer.

Earlier this month, the companies kicked off demonstrations as part of the trial with a showcase of various MCX features, including Mission Critical Push-to-Talk (MCPTT), MC Push-to-Video, MC Push-to-Data, location services and Land Mobile Radio Interworking Function (LMR-IWF). These advanced functionalities provide means of reliable, seamless and secure communication for public safety agencies, first responders and mission-critical operations across different industries.

For Australia’s first MCPTX trial, Samsung is providing its 3GPP standard-compliant MCPTX solutions — MCX Core and MCX Client Application. These advanced MCX solutions are designed to leverage the proven technologies like 4G, 5G and mission-critical services to deliver robust and secure voice, video and data exchange capabilities even under challenging network conditions. Samsung is deploying Etherstack’s LMR-IWF in the trial, enabling seamless integration between the advanced MCPTX network and traditional LMR systems and allowing the users to communicate effortlessly.

“It’s great to have another carrier deployment of our IWF technology with Samsung in Australia,” said David Deacon, CEO at Etherstack. “This deployment demonstrates that standards-based interworking between traditional digital radio networks and next-gen 5G networks is feasible and mature enough to deploy in real-world scenarios. We are thrilled to be working with Samsung in supporting technology advances for public safety agencies in Australia.”

Samsung’s MCPTX supports interoperability with existing systems and allows a seamless transition from traditional technologies, meaning that organisations can leverage the benefits of MCX without completely overhauling their current set-up, saving both time and resources. Through enabling a smooth migration to MCX, Samsung helps organisations futureproof their communication capabilities while minimising disruption to their operations, by keeping the end-user experience front and centre. Even beyond public safety, MCX has significant potential for other industries that rely on mission-critical communications, such as utilities, mining and transportation, where reliable and secure communication is of utmost importance.

Looking ahead, the future of mission-critical communications is set to shift again with 5G. Enhanced mobile broadband capabilities and ultralow latency will bring new levels of performance and new capabilities through MCX, enabling novel applications and use cases that are bound to transform public safety and emergency management. Samsung is working closely with standards bodies to pave the way for 5G adoption in mission-critical services in the coming years, ensuring that its MCPTX solutions remain at the forefront of innovation.

*Yong Chang is Vice President and Head of B2B Business Development Group, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics.

^Matthieu Guyot is Director of Public Safety, B2B Business Development Group, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics.

This article was originally published on the Samsung blog and has been republished here with permission.

Originally published here.