Communication plays an important role in both regular police and first responder services as well as in rescue and relief operations during emergency or disaster situations, especially in a country like India, a country i.e., highly prone to natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, coastal cyclones and manmade ones such as accidents etc.
In view of addressing the growing importance of effective digital communications infrastructure for mission critical services, COAI, the apex industry association representing leading Telecom, Internet, Technology and Digital Services companies along with Nokia organized a special session to discuss the issues, challenges and solutions for communications to be provided for Mission Critical Services. This event brought forward some key issues on this crucial subject, as India in recent months witnessed multiple requirements for Public Protection and Disaster Management that included, in addition to routine police work, the pandemic, mass migration to villages and also various cyclones in different parts of the country.
The webinar witnessed the welcome note by Lt. Gen Dr. SP Kochhar, DG, COAI followed by presentation of Mr. Marc Balliet, Public Sector Solutions (Enterprise), Global, Nokia on LTE for Mission Critical Services. The online event also had a panel discussion on the issue with the participation of experts on the subject including Mr. Pranav Jha, Professor, IIT Bombay, Brig. Ajay Gangwar, Advisor, Operations and Communications, NDMA, and Mr. Randeep Raina, CTO, Nokia
Commenting on the subject of the webinar, Lt. Gen Dr. SP Kochhar, Director General, COAI said “Keeping in mind the developments in wireless broadband technologies such as LTE, it is time we exploit these to enhance the efficiencies of the current communications infrastructure of PPDR agencies to enable them to use digital tools to meet the evolving needs of public safety and emergency communication, such as access to instant messaging, high-quality images and video, mapping and location services, remote control of robots, and other applications.”
Adding further and sharing his views Mr. Randeep Raina, Chief Technology Officer, Nokia, said, “To overcome current challenges, LTE for public safety network brings many advantages and provides host of services like IoT, Video streaming and is also scalable. LTE also promises interoperability, security with installed encryption on application level and is also suitable to support large ecosystem. We understand India wants to adopt LTE but spectrum availability is an issue, so we hope all stakeholders work in this direction to adopt new technologies.”