It is difficult to condense into one article the achievements of TCCA members over the last year – the vast majority of work carried out as unpaid voluntary contributions in addition to the hugely demanding ‘day jobs’ of our Working Group members.
For it is TCCA’s Working Groups that comprise the heart of the association, coming together for the common good of all, to advance global critical communications for a safer, more connected world.
Massive Mission Critical Video
2025 began with the launch of the first of our authoritative white papers of the year, ‘Guidance for the successful usage of Massive Mission Critical Video’, produced by members of our Broadband Industry Group (BIG) and our Critical Communications Broadband Group (CCBG).
Video is one of the most promising and versatile technologies for improving operational efficiency and effectiveness for first responders, and the white paper explores what public safety agencies and operators need to consider to successfully deploy video services supporting mission-critical operations, especially where the scale of its usage is considered ‘massive’. The overall objective is to ensure that first responders and public safety agencies (and by implication other critical communication sectors) can use video effectively and for operational benefit.
The importance of physical infrastructure security
Our Legal and Regulatory Working Group (LRWG) followed this with the publication of the paper ‘Legal and Regulatory aspects relating to the physical security of the telecommunications infrastructure used for critical communication services’, aiming to focus the attention of critical communications providers to the importance of physical infrastructure security. The goal is to catalyse the creation of a global standard for the physical security of infrastructure supporting critical communications.
Why is this important now? Because most of the current critical communication networks using technologies as TETRA, Tetrapol and P25, are owned and operated by the state, and their physical security is assured by the state to the extent deemed necessary. However, the emerging use of commercial mobile operator (MNO) networks to support broadband critical communications, particularly as Radio Access Networks, is changing the operating model. The physical security of these network elements is of paramount importance, but it is debatable whether the measures that MNOs are currently adopting in this regard are sufficiently robust and fit for purpose – hence the need for legal and regulatory measures.
Safeguarding TETRA Interoperability
Managed by our Technical Forum, TCCA’s world-leading TETRA Interoperability (IOP) testing and certification process underpins the ongoing success of the TETRA standard, the most widely used mission critical communications system in the world.
The independence of the IOP process ensures the ongoing strength of the market and its support by multiple vendors. In June 2025 TCCA announced the appointment of DEKRA, the world’s largest independent, non-listed expert organisation in the field of standards-based testing, inspection and certification, as the new TETRA Certification Body that will oversee the IOP testing process and issue the certificates. Several DEKRA offices around the world are involved in supporting the TETRA IOP process, including those in Germany, Chile, China and Spain.
Quality of Service, Priority and Pre-emption (QPP)
TCCA’s QPP Implementation Guide, written by a task force comprising members from our CCBG and BIG, was launched just prior to Critical Communications World. The Guide delivers a common industry recommendation for the implementation of QPP capability when using 3GPP mechanisms. The Guide represents the collective insights and best practice from leading government authorities, commercial operators, infrastructure providers, control room specialists, device manufacturers, and app vendors with experience in QPP implementations.
Critical Communications World 2025
Our world-leading Critical Communications World (CCW) 2025 event was hosted in Belgium by national critical network operator and TCCA member ASTRID. With record attendance, including from government operators from around the globe, the show sets the agenda for the future of the critical communications sector.
India’s announcement of their proof-of-concept for critical broadband adoption with local operators highlighted the government ambitions to enhance their public safety systems with broadband capabilities following the example of South Korea, Finland, France and USA critical broadband efforts. Join us in London for CCW 2026!
Critical training courses
For anyone connected with critical communications, there is now for the first time, a range of training courses to meet all requirements. From new entrants to the sector using narrowband to those adopting 4G/5G critical broadband networks and those on the periphery, TCCA and Wray Castle launched The Critical Communications Institute, featuring a suite of specialist training solutions to help professionals understand, design, build and optimise the critical communications networks of today and tomorrow.
The focused, practical and highly relevant courses cover the latest critical telecoms technologies including mission critical narrowband TETRA, mission critical broadband, LTE and 5G technologies, tailored to the precise needs of critical industry sector users such as those in public safety, utilities, transport, energy and mining.
The Interworking Function (IWF)
The increasing development of critical broadband networks means the key issue for network operators is how to ensure mission critical services delivered over broadband interwork with the existing narrowband land mobile radio (LMR) networks such as TETRA.
Our newest Working Group, the IWF Working Group, delivered a detailed white paper ‘Interworking Function (IWF) Interworking of LMR networks with 3GPP Mission Critical Services’ that explores the opportunities and challenges of interworking LMR networks with 4G/5G-based 3GPP Mission Critical Services (MCX) solutions by leveraging the standard-defined Interworking Function and achieve seamless interoperability for a gradual and successful adoption of broadband technologies.
First Critical Communications India event
August 2025 saw Safeguard The Future: India’s First Mission-Critical Communications Conference, take place in New Delhi, jointly presented by TCCA and the Broadband India Forum (BIF), the independent policy forum and think tank that works towards the development and enhancement of the entire broadband and broadcasting ecosystem in a holistic, technology and service neutral manner.
The conference focused on trusted, reliable, secure, and interoperable communications in public safety, disaster response, utilities, transport, healthcare, and smart cities, and united key stakeholders from government, emergency response and critical infrastructure organisations, global standards bodies, Regulators, Spectrum Managers, Industries to showcase innovations in critical communications. The 2026 event will take place in September.
Broadband Callout Specifications
Towards the end of the year, the extensive work of a task force within TCCA’s CCBG led to the creation of new mission critical broadband callout specifications compatible with 3GPP MCX standards, using MCData SDS and MCPTT. The two new critical documents are the Mission Critical Broadband Callout Service Overview with requirements and use cases, and the Mission Critical Broadband Callout Service Definition with the detailed specifications.
Callout is a two-way paging service that enables a control room dispatcher to select the first responders that should respond to an incident and send them callout alerts with a description of the incident situation. The TETRA callout specifications were developed by TCCA in 2009 and is a vital service in TETRA networks but has, until now, not been available for 3GPP 4G and 5G broadband mission critical networks.
Success in cooperation
TCCA works closely with likeminded organisations such as EUTC, 450 MHz Alliance and UIC, and is a key supporter of the ETSI MCX and FRMCS Plugtests. TCCA is the 3GPP Market Representation Partner for the critical communications sector, driving the sector’s views and needs. During the year TCCA has actively pushed for trust to be the key design principle in 3GPP standardisation and this is being recognised in the 6G studies. This mainly translates to reliability, resilience and availability since the connection is in this sector the lifeline. This work needs to continue. Previous and this year’s contributions to address services like device-to-device multi-hop are now ready for implementation as 3GPP 5G Advanced Release 19 is completed.
The 3GPP standards form the foundation for common global mission critical broadband services for PPDR (Public Protection and Disaster Relief). TCCA and GCF (Global Certification Forum) jointly developed 3GPP conformance and later interoperability certification to truly enable multivendor market evolution, interoperability with better quality products, wider supply and innovation for less cost due to larger market and wider competition. To help agencies to procure compliant products, TCCA’s LRWG has already published a procurement guide.
This is just a snapshot of TCCA’s year. There is much work under way, and much to be done. If you want to be involved – join us! Further information on all of the above, and how to join, can be found at www.tcca.info
Picture Courtesy: Pixabay.com
This article is published inside the January 2026 issue of Disruptive Telecoms
