Telstra in partnership with Motorola Solutions, Ericsson,and Qualcomm has recently showcased the first LTE Broadcast enabled PTT call on its commercial LANES Solution.
The LTE Broadcast enabled PTT call was made possible through Motorola Solutions’ mission-critical communications for public safety, Ericsson’s flexible and efficient network infrastructure, Qualcomm's LTE Broadcast supported Snapdragon platform.
Telstra’s LTE Broadcast capability allows PTT group calls to be delivered simultaneously to all members of a group call with high assurance, low latency and separated from regular mobile traffic. The enabling technology is based on the 3GPP release 13 standard known as MC-PTT over LTE.
The technology is viewed as complementary to existing, highly secure and available mission critical LMR services and can cost-effectively extend assured PTT service to a greater number of users via mobile devices. It will allow PSAs (Public Safety Agencies) and enterprises to do two things: extend PTT capabilities to more users via both hardened devices and regular smartphones; and provide complementary coverage and capacity to LMR networks.
The solution delivers critical communications capabilities including optimized push to talk latency, flexible talk group management and call pre-emption for LTE devices such as smart phones, tablets, and desktop computers. The use of LTE Broadcast allows faster call setup times, reduced PTT latency and uses efficient downlink bandwidths for group PTT calls. The addition of an assured PTT service to Telstra’s prioritized access LANES Solution comes after the launch of Telstra’s LANES Emergency solution in 2016, which included VoLTE for Public Safety capability. Combined, the LANES solution and LTE Broadcast enabled PTT will provide PSAs and critical applications with prioritized access and preferential treatment for voice and data services.
The teams will continue to develop the full 3GPP Mission Critical Push to Talk Release 13 and 14 capabilities and undertake network testing to optimize solution performance and measure key metrics such as coverage, latency, and capacity.
Bruce Brda, EVP Products and Services with Motorola Solutions
While mission-critical LMR systems will continue to provide the critical means of frontline communication for many years to come, this new 3GPP based technology provides an excellent way of extending the reach of LMR networks to many more technology users, regardless of whether they communicate with a smartphone, hardened device or a desktop computer.
Mike Wright, Group Managing Director, Telstra
With this world-first LTE Broadcast enabled PTT call, we have shown that our LANES network can provide reliable prioritized communications to both PSAs and business customers with critical communications needs. PTT is part of Telstra's LANES roadmap for our Public Safety customers and complements the data and VoLTE services already available using this world-leading technology.
