It is, as we are all too aware, a strange time for everyone, so I am extremely proud of the way TCCA, our members and partners have continued to support the enhancement and development of critical communications. The progress of key projects has continued uninterrupted thanks to a smooth transition to online working.

Bittium received a purchase order from the Finnish Defence Forces for Bittium Tactical Power Pack products that are meant for powering tactical communication devices. The power devices will be used by the Finnish Defence Forces as accessories for the portable Bittium Tough Comnode devices.

British APCO (BAPCO) announced that its annual in-person conference will be delayed from March to October. In its place, the association will host a virtual event.

The municipality of Padova, Italy, deployed more than 300 Sepura SC20 radios for the city’s police force. These are the first Sepura radios to be deployed in the Padova region, with the radios being chosen to replace existing TETRA units after a successful user trial.

Erillisverkot, the Finnish state-run body responsible for national communications networks, for public authorities, emergency services and other critical services added Ericsson Security Manager to its Virve 2.0 5G core network public-safety network. The move is part of a mission-critical public safety partnership with Ericsson.

As Australia takes careful steps to re-open its borders and economy, public-safety personnel have continued to serve on the frontline throughout the nation’s lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The second of the three-phase BroadWay Precommercial Procurement (PCP) began on 6 July when the group of procurers awarded contracts to three consortia that met all the technical and quality requirements of the call-off competition at the end of the first phase. In the second phase, the prototype phase, the consortia are led by Airbus DS, Frequentis and Leonardo.

Hytera Communications’ U.S. subsidiaries asked a U.S. bankruptcy court to expedite its consideration of a proposed sale of their assets to a recently formed Hytera entity.

The Fifth European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) MCX Plugtests saw a 95% success rate in its testing. While three of the previous four plugtests events were held in person and the fifth was originally planned to be in-person, the fifth event was held virtually because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Airbus presented its Tactilon Agnet 500 critical collaboration platform tailored to mobile network operators (MNOs) during Critical Communications Week (CCWeek), the digital version of Critical Communications World 2020.