A game changer: How 5G is crucial to mission critical communications

For an ambulance crew responding to an emergency, just a few seconds could mean the difference between life and death. Small margins make all the difference.

The same can be said of other public safety and emergency services such as the police or fire department, which count on rapid response time to protect citizens from harm.

Be it a fire, natural disaster, terrorist attack or criminal activity, these agencies need a reliable safety system in place. The communications used by these first responders, therefore, must be robust and up to the task. With this, the network, hence, must be dedicated, mission-critical, and simply cannot fail when emergency services are needed.

One important part of this network is the push-to-talk (PTT) two-way wireless communications that personnel routinely use to inform each other and coordinate for quick decision making.

By sending and receiving real-time information literally at the push of a button, such as the location of victims and even live video footage for better situational awareness, emergency responders can carry out their jobs much more effectively and safely.

Unlike using a regular consumer mobile phone, the communications for such mission critical services are prioritised based on Quality-of-Service Class Identifier (QCI) for robustness and reliability.

BT in your inbox

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign Up

Sign Up

This means PTT calls in such a network will always be prioritised with uninterrupted service even if the base station is congested with traffic, as may be the case in an emergency.

While PTT can run on both 4G and 5G networks, increasingly a mission critical 5G network is becoming the preferred choice. That is because the reliable, low-latency network can deliver effective, reliable, and predictable connections for first responders that go beyond voice.

It supports enhanced Internet of Life-Saving Things (IoLST), which includes wearables, sensors, smartphones, and drones that can collect, analyse, and transmit data and high-resolution images and live video feeds rapidly between emergency responders and public agencies.

For example, a police officer who arrives first to the scene of a fire can share live video footage of the situation instead of just verbal or textual descriptions. This way, firefighters rushing to the scene can come up with a more informed and effectual rescue strategy whilst en route.

Besides emergency situations, PTT can be used for business-critical communications. It comes in handy for public safety agencies managing large events like an outdoor music festival or a stadium hosting a major football match, for example.

StarHub's SmartPTT solution provides the robustness, reliability and performance of a traditional PTT network while delivering other data such as machine telemetry.

StarHub SmartPTT is also the only solution in Singapore that offers Push-to-Video for live low-latency transmission at the push of a button. This enables users to share a video of a situation directly and easily.

Flexibility is built in as well. Additional features such as group voice, video communications, messaging and texting, ambient listening, emergency overwrite communication, recording functionality, and geo-location fencing are options that can be added on.

Indeed, a lot more can be done on a 5G network, since it can carry not just voice and video but also location data, machine telemetry and environmental data.

Besides public safety, these capabilities benefit a wide spectrum of industries, such as construction, manufacturing, oil and gas, hospitality, and events management.

Workers in these sectors may operate in challenging and dangerous environments, and across large areas, requiring constant and instant communications and coordination not only amongst themselves, but also with the equipment they operate.

For example, the telemetry from a gas valve would trigger an alert to technicians for an urgent inspection or maintenance before imminent failure that might have potentially shut down an entire operation.

For emergency responders and industries with business-critical communications needs, the focus should not be on building the network but making full use of its features. Therefore, ease of use and adoption is important.

A one-stop solution, StarHub SmartPTT takes the hassle of integrating the solution out of the hands of customers, enabling them to get on with the job.

The solution delivers islandwide 5G/4G connectivity, ruggedised PTT devices, a customisable user application, user training, and comprehensive after-sales support with guaranteed response times.

StarHub SmartPTT is a solution that enables public safety agencies and businesses that require a trusted and robust system to operate more effectively and with a peace of mind.

Request for a demo to find out how StarHub SmartPTT enables new features such as Push-to-Video feeds for emergency or business-critical services here.