Critical Communications World 2023: an insight into a complete solution for Band 68
During Critical Communication World 2023 in Helsinki, taking place from 23rd to 25th May, Athonet will showcase the Athonet Tactical Backpack ATB-68 at stand L70 and Crosscall will showcase Core-Z5, the first smartphone to support B68 at stand K70.
We recently sat down with Massimiliano Gianesin, Director, Special Projects at Athonet, Sebastiano Di Filippo, Senior Director, Business Development at Qualcomm Europe, Inc. and Denis Thayanithy, Director, Solution Engineering and Global Partnership at Crosscall to find out more about Band 68 and the ecosystem approach that is enabling an end-to-end solution for public safety use cases in Europe.
What is Band 68, and how can it support public safety?
Massimiliano: Band 68 has been a reality for some time now and is available for governments to use to help them in their digital transformation journey. Band 68 is a dedicated frequency that can be used to support emergency management and other public safety use cases with critical private mobile radio (PMR). The potential of this band has not been fully utilized due to a limited number of solutions in the market that can meet the needs of these government agencies.
Athonet has more than 15 years of experience in delivering 4G/5G mobile core solutions, and our portable tactical solutions with the Athonet Tactical Backpack ATB-68 and Athonet Tactical Cube ATC-68, is the result of years of research and constant improvement. To drive full scale adoption PMR use cases for these organizations, ministries, and security services, we have fostered an ecosystem approach that leverages multiple technologies.
Tell us about the end-to-end offering between Athonet and Crosscall?
Denis: At Crosscall, we create durable mobile telephony designed for hostile and unpredictable environments, offering waterproof, ruggedized and long-lasting mobiles and smartphones. Our extensive expertise in mission-critical and business critical communication means our solutions are perfectly suited to both public and private security actors. Recognizing these synergies with Athonet, we worked together to deliver an end-to-end solution from network to end user device that is compatible with Band 68.
Public safety agencies looking to digitalize their operations can utilize a complete portable tactical solution with full use of Band 68 for various critical PMR communications. This offering is enabled by the Athonet Tactical Backpack ATB-68, Athonet Tactical Cube ATC-68, Crosscall X-COMM remote speaker microphone, Crosscall X-VIBES bone conduction headphones and Crosscall CORE-Z5 smartphone, which utilizes the Qualcomm QCM6490 SoC.
How will more intelligent devices enable new public safety use cases?
Sebastiano: Qualcomm Technologies is helping to drive the digital transformation of industries by enabling more intelligent edge devices, capable of powerful on-device AI and compute performance. Public safety is no exception, and we are pleased to see Athonet and Crosscall deliver an end-to end offering with their combined solutions.
From remote mountain rescue to fire services, public safety agencies are adopting new technologies and applications to improve their operations. It is important to ensure safety personnel in the field have devices capable of reliable and private critical communications, but also powerful performance for new applications, and a long battery life.
Crosscall’s CORE-Z5, benefits from our premium tier Qualcomm QCM6490 SoC, with support for the latest connectivity – Wi-Fi-6E, 5G and Band 68. It delivers astonishing performance at lower power, and with the leading 6th Gen Qualcomm AI Engine, faster data transfer is enabled between all cores. These features and more produce a combined AI performance of up to 12 TOPS, enabling a range of new intelligent use cases on device.
The Crosscall CORE-Z5 can help drive new on-device mobile capabilities, while supporting pivotal PMR communications for field personnel. We are confident this growing ecosystem of products, compatible with Band 68, will drive new use cases in public safety.