The false (and dangerous) economy of commercialisation

It is now clear that globally we are entering an extended period of migration from traditional PMR/LMR solutions such as TETRA, P25 and DMR, and heading towards the next generation of public safety and critical communications systems, which will be based on 3GPP standard releases — beginning with Release 12. Users will soon gain access to new products, services and applications as we move towards a new generation of societies and economies based on new principles that are only now beginning to emerge.

For the past five years or so, the global critical communications community has become increasingly engaged in the global standards processes, developing common, unified platforms for a new generation of ‘digital services’ that require end-to-end, secure-by-design, private-by-design principles applied across the network. In this new environment where we are always connected and always open to the rest of the world, we require guaranteed levels of performance, availability and security. We have taken this for granted in private networks, but it now must be extended to all solutions in this new network-of-networks world, where no weak points can be permitted.

Governments and public safety agencies are now pondering their next moves as this switch to more advanced platforms begins. However, it appears that many authorities are focused more on the potential cost savings from unified platforms rather than the increased security and operational benefits. Public safety is a fundamental public service that all governments must provide for their citizens in order to guarantee law and order, and enable businesses and individuals to flourish in an open society. When it comes to public safety communications, there can be no short cuts.

Countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia are even contemplating handing over their entire public safety communications to commercial carriers such as EE and Telstra, who would be expected to provide essential communications services to all public safety agencies over existing spectrum using off-the-shelf equipment and standard contracts. Together with many other critical communications experts, I believe this is one dangerous step too far that will almost certainly need to be corrected in the short to medium term to reduce the risk of a future system failure with potentially catastrophic consequences.

Governments must strike a balance between maximising the economic value of valuable, prime spectrum in global LTE/5G bands by auctioning it off to the highest bidder, while at the same time reserving sufficient spectrum for future mission-critical services that provide enormous social value and insurance against natural and man-made disasters.

Governments must also maintain control over such critical public services at all costs by putting aside sufficient funds to make sure public safety and emergency services personnel have the necessary tools to keep us all safe. Handing such critical services over to the private sector without all the necessary checks and balances, and without making sure that all possible future scenarios are considered, simply to save some money in the short term is a false economy.

We most definitely need to move forward with new services and we definitely need to push the boundaries of what is possible and show ambition, but we also need to find the best possible long-term model for mission-critical communications. The debate will continue to rage within our industry for many years to come, but we must never allow private gain to take precedence over public good and public service.

Peter Clemons is founder and Managing Director of critical communications consultancy Quixoticity, and a frequent visitor to Australasia, where he regularly speaks at top-level conferences such as Comms Connect.