The second meeting of the ETSI Technical Committee on Critical Communications Systems (TC CCS), developing both narrowband and broadband critical communications standards, closed on 17 September with its full leadership team in place.

The committee now stands ready to support the European Critical Communications System (EUCCS), whose deployment is planned for 2030. Several national authorities responsible for critical communications in their countries are participating in the committee, strengthening cross-country interoperability.

The committee’s main leadership has now been completed by the Chairs of four working groups. The group in charge of security (WG6) is led by David Chater-Lea, one of the first members involved in TETRA standardisation and an ETSI Fellow. The working group in charge of user requirements (WG10) is led by Ms Sanja Holen from PSCE (Public Safety Communication Europe Forum).

The group working on the ETSI TETRA narrowband standard and its evolution (WG4) will be led by Kit Kilgour from Sepura Ltd, while WG11 is led by Renaud Mellies from the French Ministry of the Interior. This group is responsible for the development, maintenance and evolution of architectures, interfaces, protocols and interoperability frameworks supporting mobile broadband Critical Communications Systems (CCS), with a particular focus on broadband mission-critical services and EUCCS. Due to the large scope and expected amount of work in WG11, TC CCS also nominated Jukka Vialen from Airbus Public Safety and Security to a Vice Chair position. 

By building on existing 3GPP standards, this Technical Committee will contribute to ensuring that critical communications remain interoperable, secure and resilient across Europe and internationally, ultimately ensuring that whenever disasters strike first responders will be able to conduct their missions wherever they are, whenever they need to, and with whomever they are tasked to cooperate.